HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



237 



take pains to prevent bulbs or seeds of the yellow 

 crocus from becoming: mixed with the purple ones, 

 and I think he would have to wait a very long time 

 before such a thing would occur. I can believe 

 what E. T. Scott says about the Heartsease, as that 

 is such a very variable plant, but 1 beg to differ 

 altogether about the Croci. — Geo. Nicholson, Kew. 



Cats and Music. — In the last number of 

 Science-Gossip an instance is given of [the effects 

 of whistling upon a cat, in which it is stated that 

 the animal listened to a tune with evident, pleasure. 

 My experience, however, in regard to this differs 

 from that of " E. J. T." A relative of mine has a 

 cat — a noble animal — rejoicing under the refined 

 name of " Thomas." This creature dislikes to hear 

 any one whistle. But one morning, when he was 

 fast asleep, I whistled loudly. It acted like magic. 

 " Thomas " started up in an instant, looked very 

 bewildered, and decamped from the room at full 

 speed. — Geo. 0. Howell. 



Swiss Elora. — As a Manual for Swiss flowering 

 plants, with descriptions very much to the point, 

 though necessarily very brief, I can strongly recom- 

 mend P. Morthier's " Flore Analytique de la Suisse," 

 second edition, Aug., 1872. Price 4 fr. 50 c. Pub- 

 lishers, Sandoz & Eischbacher, Paris. — W. Moyle 

 Rogers, Stapleforcl, Salisbury. 



How do" Crickets Sing ? — The crickets were 

 singing their shrill song a few hundred yards from 

 my house of late, and I said, "Let any wild beast 

 come under my roof rather than those insidious 

 pests ; where they are, sleep is banished for ever- 

 more ! " The very next evening there was the first 

 touch of autumn in the fresh cool air, and on coming 

 home from a walk I heard a cricket's voice resound- 

 ing in every room of the thin-walled town villa. So 

 I set to work, found him comfortably ensconced 

 for his winter quarters behind the skirting-boardby 

 the kitchen-stove, and by a plentiful administration 

 of hot water I soon had him a martyr to science 

 under the microscope. I then hunted through all 

 the amusing " Cricket " notes in the back volumes 

 of SciENce-GossiP, for information concerning the 

 manner in which this noise is produced. And I 

 must say I found very great difficulty in believing 

 that this chirp proceeds from the mere icing of a 

 rather delicate white insect possessed not even of 

 the hard wing-case of the beetles. I shall be very 

 glad if any of your correspondents will kindly 

 furnish a sketch in your next number of Science- 

 Gossip, together with an account of the exact 

 locality and process of produciug this so-called 

 music. The under gauzy wins: has a beautiful 

 striped membrane that ends in a firm, almost horny 

 point ; but the upper wing is almost as gauzy, and 

 seems quite incapable of originating any friction. 

 May 1 not be allowed to believe that the peculiarly 

 muscular thighs of the insect are the secret of its 

 powers, and that, as I believethe grasshopper does, 

 he rubs them together for his wife's delectation at 

 their evening party ? — W. E. 



Laburnum with Yellow and Purple Ra- 

 cemes. — What "L. A. B." describes is no doubt 

 Cytisus Adami, sometimes called Gylisus laburnum 

 purpurescens, I believe. Any way it is a hybrid 

 variety, said by some authorities to have originated 

 at Rouen. There is here a large specimeu which 

 annually affords three distinct forms of blossom : — 

 (1) The usual yellow racemes ; (2) short racemes of 

 a rosy purple colour ; and (3) blossoms of Gytisus 



purpureas proper, these latter being borne amidst 

 dense tufts of its original-looking branches, which, 

 strange enough, are borne promiscuously upon the 

 other normal branches. I think it needs age to 

 produce these duplicate bloom characteristics. 

 Hence, in answer to your correspondent, this is a 

 somewhat common, or at least an acknowledged, 

 lusus natura of a fixed character, seen upou aged 

 trees of its kind. — William Ear ley. 



Animal v. Vegetable Life.— Should no corre- 

 spondent suggest any better aid in view of meeting 

 " L.W." and his friend's views, I suggest that they 

 place a peck of lime into as large a cask of water as 

 he can obtain for it ; to stir it up well, and subse- 

 quently, when the lime has settled down, to refill 

 and repeat the process about three times. The 

 second or third filling may be made from the tank 

 itself. _ Even a portion of lime may be added to the 

 water itself. In this wise fresh-water shrimps are 

 frequently killed in watercress-beds without exhi- 

 biting the least injury as accruing to the plants 

 which grow therein. — William Earley. 



The Great Grey Trout, Salmo ferox {lacus- 

 tris).—" We have to record," says the Newark 

 Herald, "the capture in a salmon net of a very fine 

 specimeu of this fish, taken by Mr. Loscoe Bradley 

 in the river Trent, at Cromwell, a village some six 

 or eight miles below Newark-upon-Trent (Notts), 

 on Monday last. When first taken it was imagined 

 to be an ordinary but very fine salmon, of w r hich, 

 during the season, some good ones are occasionally 

 captured in this district, and it was accordingly, on 

 the following day, exhibited in the shop of our 

 townsman, Mr. Kelly, fishmonger, Castlegate. Here 

 it was seen by several, amongst whom were some 

 experienced and devoted followers of the piscatorial 

 art, one or two of whom seemed to be somewhat 

 doubtful as to its belonging to the species for one of 

 which it had been originally taken ; and one gen- 

 tleman in particular expressed a decided conviction 

 that its characteristics were more those of the 

 Great Grey Trout. After an examination this 

 theory was generally accepted to be correct, the 

 greatest mystery being as to how a fish generally 

 supposed to be almost entirely confined to the larger 

 lochs or lakes, should be found in this river. There 

 is, however, a local tradition that some years ago a 

 number of young fish of this species were turned 

 into the river Derwent, which empties itself into 

 the Trent, and it is thought possible that this may 

 have been one of the number. The specimen here 

 recorded was a male fish weighing 30 lb., very hand- 

 somely marked, well fed, and in splendid condition. 

 Yarrell, in his description of the Great Grey Trout, 

 in his work on British Eishes (1S36), says that this 

 fish was first noticed about eighty-four years pre- 

 viously, and quotes the following accouut from the 

 seventh edition of the Encyclopaedia Brilannica :— 

 ' When in perfect season and full grown it is a very 

 handsome fish, though the head is alwavs too large 

 and long to be iu accordance with our ideas of 

 perfect symmetry. In a trout the colours are deep 

 purplish brown on the upper part, changing into 

 reddish grey, and thence into fine orange-yellow on 

 the breast and belly. The whole body, when the 

 fish is newly caught, appears as if glazed over with 

 a thin tint of rich lake-colour, which fades away as 

 the fish dies, and so rapidly that the progressive 

 changes of colour are easily perceived by an atten- 

 tive eye. The lower parts of these fish are spotless, 

 the dorsal fin is of the same colour with the upper 

 part of the fish. It is marked with large dark spots ; 



