270 



HARDWICKE'S SCJENCE-GOSSIP. 



When you return from a day's excursion, turn out 

 your spoils into the Store-bottle, where they may 

 remain until you wish to set them ; and if that 

 should not be for months, they will still remain just 

 as you put them in,— as pliant as the day they were 

 caught. If your readers will kindly turn to fig. -140, 

 I will endeavour to explain my mode of setting. 



Having pinned your insect to the sheet of cork 

 as described by Mr. Bridgman, first set out the legs 

 (a most important part of the business, as in Hymen- 

 optera they are most conspicuous). The great art 

 of setting is to set naturally. If you have ever 

 observed a fly or a bee walk, you will at once see 

 that the insect represented is in a very unnatural 

 position. The front pair of legs are natural enough. 

 The hind pair should be where the middle pair are ; 

 and the middle pair should be exactly in the centre 

 between the first and second pair of wings, if any- 

 thing slightly inclined forward. 



Having arranged this to your satisfaction, take 

 two oblong pieces of cord, and through each end 

 pass a pin. Stretch them so that they are on a 

 level with the wings above the middle pair of legs ; 

 then fasten the wings upon them with braces, as in 

 the cut. You will perceive that the only difference 

 is that the legs are under instead of upon the card, 

 as represented. I acknowledge that to do this well, 

 especially in the case of small insects, some trouble 

 must be taken; but when we remember the fact 

 that an insect once set well is worth all the trouble 

 bestowed upon it, and remembering that, if the 

 Store-bottle be used, we may utilize the winter 

 evenings, I think your correspondent Mr. Bridg- 

 man will admit that my plan is at least worth a 

 trial. J. P. Blackett, Jtjn. 



HERMAPHRODITE FEMALE OF 

 LASIOCAMPA QUERCUS. 



A MONG a great number of larvse of this moth, 

 -*-*- which I have reared in my breeding-cages 

 this year, one has turned out an hermaphrodite. It 

 is a female, the reproductive organs, however, being 

 but imperfectly developed. 



Differing from its sisters of the same brood, it 

 failed to attract any males by " sembling," although 

 favourably exposed for that purpose. The con- 

 stant occurrence of hermaphrodism among insects 

 is worthy of remark, as it illustrates in a measure, 

 one of the most interesting questions of the day. An 

 hermaphrodite was despised by the ancients as an 

 individual capable of fulfilling by turns the repro- 

 ductive functions of both sexes, or as one which at 

 the same time possessed both the male and female 

 organs fully developed. Such a condition of things, 

 however, not only does not obtain among the 

 authentic details of anomalies, but is in nature 



absolutely impossible. The term hermaphrodite is 

 now used to designate an individual possessing an 

 admixture of the two sexes. In all cases the 

 malformed individual being of one or the other sex, 

 and related to the opposite sex by some few 

 characters only. 



The origin of this hermaphrodism has been con- 

 sidered somewhat obscure, but it may in most cases 

 be referred to some arrest or excess in the process 

 of development, because, in the early stages of 

 embryonic life, there is found a very close resem- 

 blance between the generative organs of both sexes. 



Fig. 16". Specimen of Hermaphrodite Female of Lasionampa 

 Quercus. 



A great deal of light has been thrown upon the 

 matter both by Haeckel and Darwin, who show that 

 a far greater number of hermaphrodites belong to 

 the female rather than to the male sex, and this 

 fact is explained by the theory that the reproductive 

 organs in both sexes were originally female, and 

 that many hermaphrodites remain of that sex by 

 arrest of development, who would, if further de- 

 veloped, have become males. 



Chas. H. Griffith. 



LOCAL NAMES OF PLANTS. 



TN the October number a correspondent mentions 

 ■*■ that " Bazier " is the name given in some parts 

 of Lancashire to the Auricula, and suggests that 

 " Bazier " may be a corruption of Base Ear, Sow, 

 or Little Ear. 



As Auricula Ursi is an old scientific name, and 

 "Oreille d'Ours" is the modern French vernacular 

 name for the Auricula, it can, I think, hardly be 

 doubted that " Bazier " is simply a corruption of 

 "Bear's Ear." These phonetic corruptions, as 

 they may be called, are a fruitful source of local 

 and vernacular plant-names, and are sometimes very 

 amusing and almost always instructive. 



At the entrance to Covent Garden are some stalls, 

 at which the humbler members of the horticultural 

 fraternity dispense roots and plants to the owners 

 of London suburban gardens. These good people 

 have some one who prints their labels for them, in a 

 very showy style ; but the spelling is occasionally 

 somewhat loose. Once, in passing one of these 



