HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



17 



of Nicholson's "Manual of Zoology ":—" Many 



spiders, however, do not construct any web, unless 

 it be for their own habitations ; but hunt their prey 

 for themselves" (p. 204).— Edward Fentone Mwin, 

 Boot on, Norwich. 



Gregories — In Maton's " Observations relative 

 chiefly to the Natural History, &c, of the Western 

 Counties of England" (1797), I find (vol. ii. p. 55), 

 under Frithelstoke (Cornwall) : "In a pasture east 

 of the church we found Narcissus pseudo-Narcissus 

 growing in vast profusion. The people of the village 

 call these plants Gregories, — a name that struck lis 

 on account of its coinciding with the appellation 

 of the order to which the neighbouring monastery 

 belonged." Is this name still in use ? It is not 

 given in Prior, p. 61.— E. T., 31. J. 



Loose-strife (p. 19).— I cannot agree with Mr. 

 Ernst that '•'Loose-strife," as applied to Lysimachia, 

 is to be regarded as a " new-made plant-name." T 

 find it in Bailey's English Dictionary (1728) and 

 Miller's "Gardener's Dictionary" (I70S), and 

 think it will probably be found in most of the oid 

 Herbals — G. H. II. 



Climbing Rats. — A somewhat curious story, 

 illustrative of the remarkable sagacity shown by 

 some of our smaller animals, and which you may, 

 perhaps, deem worthy of mention in your journal, 

 was told me the other day by a near neighbour of 

 ours. The facts are as follows :'— The person to 

 whom I allude has in her garden a particularly fine 

 apple-tree, which had borne this season a goodly 

 crop. Suddenly they began to disappear without any 

 very apparent cause. She came at length, however, 

 to the conclusion that they must have been stolen 

 by some of the boys of the village, and accordingly 

 thought no more of the matter. Some time after, 

 the gardener, turning over a heap of rubbish placed 

 in a corner not far from the tree, discovered in the 

 centre a hollow cavity, in which were neatly stored 

 the greater portion of the missjng_ apples, a few 

 being slightly gnawed, and exhibiting plainly the 

 marks of the depredator's teeth. The rats must 

 have climbed the tree, bitten off the apples, de- 

 scended again, and finally stored them in the 

 manner related, doubtless for the purpose of form- 

 ing a winter horde. — /. S. William Durham. 



Lime Deposit in Boilers— Will " G. H. H." 

 kindly tell me whether the recipe given in the 

 January number, p. 23, for checking the lime de- 

 posit in boilers is equally appropriate when the 

 water is used for drinking and cooking, as well as 

 for washing purposes ; or should it be applied in 

 the latter case only ? — H. H. G. 



The Garden Oracle for 1871, edited by Shirley 

 Hibberd, and published at the Gardener 's Magazine 

 office, is framed upon the old model, but embodies 

 a number of improvements. It is nearly double the 

 bulk of any previous issue of the same work, and is 

 largely embellished with engravings, all of which 

 are of a strictly useful character. This, the thir- 

 teenth publication of the " Garden Oracle," is 

 characterized by a number of peculiarly attractive 

 features; such as figures and descriptions, and selec- 

 tions of the most valuable garden vegetables and 

 fruits, a series of selections of "pictorial trees" for 

 parks, gardens, public promenades, and town en- 

 closures, and a review in detail of the progress of 

 horticulture in every branch of the art during the 

 past year. Strange to say, the war has made its 



mark on this useful work, for it contains no an- 

 nouncements of new continental roses or gladioli, 

 or any other of the many flowering plants which 

 our near neighbours have been wont to supply our 

 gardens with. But the editor has made amends 

 for these deficiencies by ample notices of new in- 

 ventions, and selections of the best varieties of 

 trade articles of every kind for every imaginable 

 purpose in connection with th 

 farm. 



garden and the 



Locust Ravages. — Some idea of the damage 

 done to vegetation by locusts in tropical countries 

 may be gathered from the following account of a 

 raid made by them in an East Indian cotton planta- 

 tion. The means adopted to repel them, was by 

 recourse to the discordant sounds of native music, 

 — horns, tom-toms, and pipes — aided by the waving 

 of flags and branches of trees. These measures, 

 undoubtedly, saved the produce; forjudging by the 

 performance of the very small number that suc- 

 ceeded in gaining admission to one of the finest 

 fields unobserved, had a full complement effected 

 a lodgment, one hour would have sufficed to strip 

 every tree of its leaves, though the foliage was 

 abundant, and the plants in one field from 5 to 6 

 feet high. The immunity which the native Indian 

 cotton enjoyed from the attacks was considerable, 

 considering the avidity with which they devoured 

 the exotic descriptions; and, true to their early tra- 

 ditions, the Egyptian was evidently an especial 

 favourite. Some of the swarms that passed over 

 the country at that time were exceedingly numerous. 

 The arrival and settlement of one mighty mass was 

 a remarkable sight. What was first observed was 

 a sort of haze on the verge of the horizon, in a long 

 line, as if a steamer had passed and its smoke was 

 rising into vapour : this was some hours before the 

 insects arrived. The cloud gradually thickened, 

 and rose higher as they approached. When they 

 got fairly overhead, the air became darkened as if 

 night was setting in, it being yet mid-day, and the 

 peculiar sound which accompanied their flight re- 

 sembled that of the rustling of the leaves of the 

 Peepul-tree when agitated by light winds ; but it is 

 not until they have settled down that any idea can 

 be formed of the immensity of their numbers; and 

 the early dawn, before sunrise has warmed them 

 into life and motion, is the time to witness this 

 most extraordinary sight. In the instance now re- 

 ferred to, the appearance the face of the country 

 wore would be best described by supposing that a 

 tolerably heavy fall of snow had taken place, only 

 that the colour of it was a light brown, and this 

 extended for miles, as far indeed as the eye could 

 reach. Trees were favourite perching-grouud for 

 the night, and the manner in which they contrived 

 to crowd upon them, piles over piles, concealing 

 every vestige of leaf and branch, gave the trees a 

 singular appearanee. At one spot a stout and wide- 

 spreading branch of a banyan-tree had snapped at 

 its stem from the incumbent weight of the insects. 

 — Gardener's Chronicle (1871), p. 70. 



Bother the Pigs !— We learn that as the goats 

 destroyed the indigenous vegetation of St. Helena, 

 so now the pigs are rooting out, or promising ob- 

 literation, by destroying the seeds of the most in- 

 teresting plants of .Norfolk Island. The noble 

 Norfolk Island Pine {Araucaria excelsd) is likely to 

 disappear before the pigs, which roam everywhere, 

 greedily devouring the seeds as soon as they fall to 

 the ground. 



