HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOS SIP. 



69 



worthy of your notice, a great part of its beauty 

 being gone. When we first saw them, on a bright 

 December day, among the dry grass at the roots 

 of a quickset hedge, they really looked beautiful. 

 Your piece, collected yesterday, is dull after being 

 exposed for weeks to the weather. I suppose the 

 authors are the little field-mice. — Thomas Cape. 



Spakrows' Eggs in Decembek.— On the 4th of 

 December last whilst going over an old steeple 

 near here (Orlestone, Kent), I accidentally found a 

 nest of the house-sparrow {Passer domesticus) 

 containing four eggs. Upon breaking one, I found it 

 to my great surprise to be perfectly fresh, and 

 evidently laid within a few days. The weather had 

 been very mild for some time past. Is this a com- 

 mon occurrence, or not ? — U. IF. 



British Orobanchace.b. — I shall feel much 

 obliged if you or some of the correspondents of 

 SciEXCE-GossiP can furnish me with any new 

 observations with reference to the British Orobau- 

 chacese. I shall be very glad of specimens of the 

 plants, and especially so of the seeds of the different 

 species of this family, as well as notes of experiments 

 that may have been tried in their culture. I shall 

 be happy to send specimens of other plants or seeds 

 in exchange. — James Fletcher. 



Saxifraga grantjlata. — I should be glad to hear 

 the general opinion as to the nature of the character- 

 istic granulations in the stem of Saxifraga granulata. 

 Hooker in his Student's Flora says, " Stem bulbifer- 

 ous," and further describes the " bulbs as large as a 

 pea, brown." Bentham, in his British Flora, says that 

 the " perennial stock is reduced to a cluster of 

 small bulbs." Now Bentley in his Manual says 

 that bulbs are confined to monocotyledonous plants. 

 How can the contradictions be reconciled ? — W. G. 

 Piper. 



Verbascum and Digitalis.— During a short 

 stay at Brentwood this last summer I was struck 

 with the almost entire absence of anjr plants of the 

 genus Verbascum, the only plant which I saw of it 

 being a dwarfed seedling. Their place seems to be 

 entirely filled up by the Digitalis purpurea, which 

 was a conspicuous object in many of the hedgerows. 

 Eound Norwich, and indeed throughout Norfolk, 

 the reverse is the case, Verbascums being common, 

 and the only plants of Digitalis which are found 

 being escapes from cultivation. Is this absence of 

 Verbascum in presence of Digitalis a general thing, 

 or is it merely confined to the above-mentioned 

 localities, and how may it be explained? — W. G. Piper. 



Theobroma. — In Humboldt's " Views of Na- 

 ture" I find it mentioned tluit the flowers of Theo- 

 broma cacao are frequently found on the root. Are 

 there any analogous cases of this anomalous produc- 

 tion of flower-buds on roots, or is it a frequent or 

 only a casual occurrence ?—W. 0. Piper. 



A Natural Barometer. — In some countries 

 frogs are used as barometers : the species employed 

 for this'purpose is the green tree-frog. They are 

 placed in tall glass bottles with little wooden ladders, 

 to the top of which they always climb in fine weather 

 and descend at the approach of bad weather. This 

 is a cheap and highly interesting weather-glass 

 where the green tree-frog is to be procured in its 

 natural state. — E. Lovett. 



Insects' Eggs.— Could any of your readers inform 

 me why, or if it is usual, that Tliecia quercus 

 should lay their eggs on Fraxiims excelsior, when 



Qiierr.us pedunculata is more plentiful in the same 

 locality, as I have constantly noticed it to be the 

 case ? — II. Glazbrook. 



Larva from Paris. — Last September, in some 

 of the parks of Paris, I found six larvae, about two 

 inches or two inches and a half long, very thick and 

 fleshy, of a delicate pale green colour, and bearing 

 a few sliort spines. By the beginning of October, 

 they had all spun cocoons, varying in colour from 

 dirty-white to light reddish-brown, rather small in 

 size, compared with the larva;. The trees on which 

 they feed grow luxuriantly in the Boulevards, parks, 

 and suburbs of Paris, and somewhat resemble the 

 Ash, but the foliage is brighter green. These trees 

 appear to be rather scarce here, or, at all events, not 

 common enoush to obtain food easily for a brood of 

 caterpillars. Now, as I expect to get a good supply 

 of eggs, from Avhich I should like to rear a number 

 of larvse, I shall feel greatly obliged to any of the 

 readers of Science-Gossip who will inform me 

 if _ they know of any common tree or plant which 

 will answer as a substitute for their natural food- 

 plant. I should be glad to know the name of the 

 moth, which I fancy has been recently introduced 

 from China or Japan. — E. D. JU. 



Stag-Beetles.— Several old and decayed trees 

 have been recently cut down in Greenwich Park, 

 and a few days_ ago a piece of wood, a foot in 

 length, and four inches in thickness, taken from the 

 root of one of them, was brought to me ; the outer 

 part was perfectly decayed, so that it crumbled at 

 the touch, and it contained about twenty larvse of 

 the Stag-beetle {Lucanus cervns). The larvtB, which 

 had the usual white fleshy appearance, were 

 from one to two inches in length, and very 

 sluggish. Among them I found an extremely 

 small male stag-beetle, rather more than half an 

 inch in length. I placed the wood in a box, and 

 in two days the larvae had buried themselves 

 completely, and were out of sight. About Black- 

 heath and Greenwich Park, in July and August, the 

 perfect insects may often be found on fine evenings 

 in considerable numbers, crawling up fences or 

 flying about, I have sometimes obtained a dozen 

 or more in an hour's search. — E. H. Glaishier. 



The Aqxjariuii in Winter.— I don't see how 

 W. Swatman is to keep his aquarium out of doors 

 successfully during the winter, and would not re- 

 commend any plan for so doing. Can he not remove 

 it for the season and place it near a window ? The 

 pleasure of studying the aquarium, I should say, 

 would be considerably enhanced if he could do so. I 

 keep golden and Prussian carp, roach, and a swarm 

 of minnows, and some mussels. These I find, after 

 much experience, to be far the best for a furnished 

 aquarium. Your perch doubtless gobbled the newt, 

 for they are most hungry creatures, though I never 

 heard of one doing so before. I would add, that 

 I filled my tank with water, Sept. 1S72, — it contains 

 about twenty gallons and tliirty fish, and have never 

 lost one. — M. H. Clare, Cheltenham. 



Ionian Snipe. — The late Lord Lytton, in his 

 translation of the Epodes of Horace, in a foot-note 

 at page 421, of the second Epode, alludes to the line 

 " Non attagen lonicus ; " the " attagen," he writes, 

 being variously interpreted woodcock, snipe, and more 

 commonly moorfowl. The Ionian Snipe is, to this 

 day, so incomparably the best of the Snipe race, 

 that 1 venture to think it is the veritable " attagen 

 lonicus." Would any of your correspondents kindly 



