220 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



as a greenhouse plant, but now grows freely in the 

 open garden, and, indeed, seems to have naturalized 

 itself in the south-west of England. A writer from 

 Exmouth observes in the " Gardeners' Magazine," 

 1829 : " The New Zealand Spinach is quite a weed 

 with us, as wherever it has once grown plants rise 

 spontaneously." 



This spinach has an advantage over the common 

 sort under cultivation in producing an abundance of 

 large and succulent leaves during the hot weather, 

 when the latter plant runs almost immediately to 

 seed, and produces little or nothing. It is likewise 

 milder in flavour, and of so rapid a growth that a 

 bed of about twenty plants is sufficient for the daily 

 supply of a large family ; but perhaps the chief 

 objection to it as a cooked vegetable is the abundance 

 of mucilage, which gives it somewhat a slimy con- 

 sistency. Still, in the hands of a skilful cook, it 

 may be made an excellent dish. 



New Zealand spinach is remarkable as being 

 almost the only native of the isles of Australasia 

 which has been worthy of a place in the kitchen 

 gardens of Europe. 



An interesting account of this plant will be found 

 in the Hort. Soc. Trans., vol. iv. p. 488. 



Hampden G. Glasspool. 



AN AQUARIUM STUDY : THE WARTY 

 NEWT (Triton cristatus). 



AST year, on the 5th of July, having received a 

 -*~* batch of this species of newt (T. cristatus), 

 consisting of three males and one female, taken from 

 a field-pond, I put them into a vessel containing 

 water only, and was thus enabled to determine of 

 what their food had chiefly consisted, which was a 

 small bivalve mollusk of the genus Pisidium. In 

 most of these mollusks the valves were open, with 

 contents extracted ; four, however, were closed, and 

 three of them contained young — one three, another 

 two, and a third one only. Although the adult 

 mollusks were extracted from these closed shells, 

 the young ones, which, with one exception, had 

 their valves closed, were not, but were distinctly 

 visible within the semi-transparent shells. 



Eour days later I took a description of the newts, 

 which is given : — Female : Head, body, legs, and 

 tail of an earth-brown colour ; margins of lips, sides 

 of head, body, and tail-column speckled with white, 

 as are also the legs ; toes dull orange, barred with 

 brown; sides of upper lip very distinctly lobed, 

 the festoon overlapping under lip ; throat dusky, 

 covered closely with speckles, mostly white, a few, 

 however, being orange ; breast and belly orange, 

 also embracing anus, and extending along under 

 side of tail to tip ; the black spots on breast and 

 oclly numerous, irregular, and many of them con- 



fluent ; under side of fore legs dull orange, with 

 brown markings, and much speckled with white ; 

 of hind legs brighter orange, with black markings, 

 and fewer speckles ; fore legs and toes slender ; 

 hind ones much stronger ; tail short, stout ; fins low 

 and fleshy ; along centre of back, instead of a crest, 

 is a depression, commencing on head, and in part 

 occupied by a low and ill- defined ridge ; upper tail- 

 fin rises gradually from loins : there are many small, 

 obscure, roundish, dark spots on body and tail ; eyes 

 black, with golden irides, not divided as in Smooth 

 Newt ; toes four and five. Length :— From tip of 

 nose to extremity of vent, 3f inches ; from vent to 

 tail-tip, 1| inch : total, 5£ inches, the tail proving 

 exceptionally short. 



Male (No. \) : Upper part of body to base of 

 tail, of a warm aark brown coiour (orange in it) ; 

 basal half of tail blackish-brown ; apical half 

 warmer; top of head blackish-brown, mottled with 

 lighter (orange - brown) ; sides of head blackish- 

 brown, mottled with white ; margin of under lip 

 mottled with white ; sides of body speckled with 

 yellow instead of white, as is also basal portion of 

 tail, to which the speckles are confined ; fore legs 

 dark orange-brown, mottled with black ; toes dull 

 orange, barred with black ; hind legs lighter orange- 

 brown, spotted with black ; toes orange, barred with 

 black ; sides of upper lip lobed, the festoon much 

 less than in female ; throat dusky, closely speckled 

 with orange and white ; breast and belly a bright 

 orange, embracing anus, and first quarter inch 

 of under side of tail ; the black spots on breast and 

 belly roundish, regular, and distinct ; under side of 

 fore and hind legs and feet orange, spotted with 

 black ; both fore legs and feet (toes) and hinder 

 ditto are considerably longer than in female ; tail is 

 also much longer and more slender ; margin of 

 upper fin serrate, of under one plain ; crest com- 

 mences on head between eyes, and extends to loins, 

 is about one-eighth inch in height, serrate, and 

 blackish in colour ; the hiatus over loins is scarcely 

 one-fourth inch long; tail-fin rises from it in a 

 gradual slope ; body and tail spotted with black. 



Male (No. 2) : Head blackish-brown, unrelieved 

 by lighter mottling; margins of lips and sides of 

 head speckled with brown and white, the brown 

 ones or cheeks to back of eye ; throat dusky, closely 

 speckled with white ; under side of fore legs 

 speckled with white ; speckles on sides of body 

 orange and white, there being also a few white ones 

 on basal portion of tail ; tail-tip bifid, caused by a 

 short downward ramification of vertebral column. 

 Length, 5f inches, which was the length of No. 1, 

 with which it was identical in all other points. 



Male (No. 3) : Darker and much smaller than 

 the two former, but quite as perfect in seasonal 

 development. Length, 4y§ inches. In this specimen 

 one of the hind feet had seven toes, there being two 

 additional small ones between two inner ones. 



