HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



47 



Purple Loose-Strife. — Almost every one who 

 has any experience of the country will have noticed 

 the beautiful purple spikes of flowers which the 

 purple loose-strife so plentifully throws up during 

 the latter part of summer, and which render it so con- 

 spicuous an ornament on the banks of rivers and ponds. 

 We have often wondered that our landscape painters 

 have not more extensively availed themselves of such 

 characteristic wild growths as the present to give an 

 added charm to their work, and furnish it with another 

 proof of its truthfulness to nature. The water- 

 lilies, both yellow and white, and the great reeds and 

 bulrushes are often introduced, and the fine large 

 leaves of the butterbur are given very effectively : 

 but we can only recall a very few instances of the 

 introduction of the graceful and brilliantly-coloured 

 purple loose-strife into representations of the tangled 

 mass of vegetation that fringes the stream. — From 

 " Cassell 's Familiar Wild Flowers" for December. 



The Cuckoo's Song.— Mr. W. P. Hamilton, in 

 the December number of Science-Gossip, page 278, 

 states the male birds are the singers, but it appears 

 this statement is not made on his own authority ; but 

 so far as my observation goes, I can speak positively 

 as to the female birds singing, and believe the male 

 bird does not sing but merely chatters. — W. H. T. 



Early Spring Call of Picus Major. — I heard 

 and saw the instrumental spring call of the great 

 spotted woodpecker {Picus major) made by tapping 

 a broken-off and vibrating branch, on Thursday last 

 (January 9th) — very early ; never heard it until 

 March before. I have heard and seen P. minor do 

 this, but not P. viridis, though he is said to do 

 it, and is much commoner. — A. Foster-Melliar, 

 Spronghton, Ipsrvich. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip earlier than formerly, we cannot un- 

 dertake to insert in the following number any communications 

 which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We must adhere to our rule of 

 not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. 



To Dealers and Others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the " exchanges " offered are fair 

 exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 Disguised Advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost 

 of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion 

 of " exchange?," which cannot be tolerated. 



We request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or 

 initials) and full address at the end. 



Special Note. — There is a tendency on the part of some 

 exchangers to send more than one per month. We only allow 

 this in the case of writers of papers. 



E. W. M. — Your article reached us safely, and will appear as 

 soon as possible. 



A. Bennet. — We should be glad to get an abstract from 

 you from the Report of the British Association, as you suggest. 



W. B. (Northampton). — Your bottle came completely smashed, 

 but we were able to make out the objects, which are common 

 freshwater shrimps, and are perfectly harmless. 



E. M. — We shall be very much pleased to see one of your 

 compact cabinets for micro-slides. 



A. J. Adams. — The "gelatinous lichen" is a species of 

 Nostoc, but it came to us too decomposed to identify the 

 species. 



W. M. — We have been unable, after much enquiry, to get 

 the address of Reichert, the maker of objectives. Perhaps some 

 of our readers can supply us with it. 



Beetles. — The names in this 1 answer were misspelt. They 

 should be Aphodius prodromus, and Phcrdon tutnidulum. 



J. Smith.— Apply to Miss Jelly, Hatchlands, Red Hill, 

 Surrey. 



J. Bishop. — Many thanks for your offer ; but we hardly 



think the subject would be suitable to our pages, especially as 

 we are already overcrowded with matter. 



Microscope.— Davies, "On the Microscope" (Messrs. W. 

 H Allen & Co.) would suit you well. Get the shilling vol I. on 

 " Entomology " ('■ Collecting and Preserving " series) published 

 by Sonnenschein. 



F. C. King. — "Metamorphism of Rocks," by Dr. A. Irving, 

 published by Longmans at (we believe) five shillings. 



EXCHANGES. 



Wanted, Le Maout and Decaisne's "Botany" (Hooker's 

 translation), and Rosenbusch's " Petrographical Tables."— 

 F. C. King, 2 Stanley Place, Preston. 



Offered, Clausilia biplicata, Helix piscina, Sph. rivicola, 

 S. ovale, Zon. excavatus, B. montanus, C. elegans, and other 

 good British shells, in exchange for mounted or unmounted 

 micro objects, chiefly zoological.— Henry C. Langdon, Castle- 

 down, Ashburnham Road, Hastings. 



Wanted, well-mounted slides of pathogenic bacilli. For 

 exchange, can send good list of slides by Cole, Doherty, &c— 

 Albert Norris, Fern Acre, Urmston, Manchester. 



Dawson's " Chain of Life," Hay's " Fungus Hunter's 

 Guide," in exchange for good text-book on entomology, or 

 slides (entomological or botanical). — " Acheta domestica," 

 76 Clifton Street, Lytham, Lanes. 



"The Ibis," in parts (clean), for 1867-9, in exchange for 

 Fowler's "British Coleoptera," 3 vols., or what offers?— VVm. 

 Jeffery, Ratham, Chichester. 



Will exchange new copy of Beale's work on the Micro- 

 scope for Carpenter's ditto.— Arthur H. Williams, Hythe. 



Will exchange a collection of foreign stamps for any of the 

 following : ambulance or dissecting instruments, violin, cornet, 

 or natural history books. Also magneto-electric machine in 

 exchange for a cornet. — F. Cartwright, 20 Eldon Street, 

 Manchester. 



Shells. — Unto inargaritifer, Nucula nucleus, Pectunculus 

 glycimeris, Cyprina islandica, Scrobicularia tenuis, Tectura 

 testudinalis, Trochus tumidus and ziziphinus var. Lyonsii, 

 Natica montacuti, Trickotropsis borealis, Trophon truncatus, 

 Fusus antiquus and gracilis, Otina otis, and others more 

 common, in exchange for others not in collection, or micro- 

 slides, insects, and eggs. — Wm. D. Rae, 23 Pekin Street, 

 London, E. 



Duplicates.— 70, 79, iiib, 200, 270, 291, 318, 321, 369, 376, 

 613, 619. Coronella minima, Borycnium hirsutum, Silene 

 saxifraga, Linum Leoni, Alsine setacea. — S. Mottet, 30 Quai 

 d'Orleans. 



Wanted, L.C., 8th ed. : 38, 68, 87, 106, 160, 218, 236, 241, 

 258, 312, 332, 389, 550, and many others. Offered, numerous 

 Continental species. Send oblat.i list to — C. Copineau, Juge 

 au Tribunal, Doullens, Sonime, France. 



Wanted, to exchange a nearly new silver lever watch for a 

 good low angle Jth objective. — Bray, Findon, Worthing. 



Offered, 30 species of Scotch carboniferous fossils selected 

 and mounted in cardboard cells (some rare forms). Wanted, 

 Davidson's " Monograph of the Carboniferous Brachiopoda of 

 Scotland," with 6 plates, i860. — J. Smith, Monkredding, 

 Kilwinning. 



Offered, tobaccocite, a substance between peat and lignite, 

 and crocadilite (small specimen), for any six species of fossils 

 named and localized. — J. Smith, Monkredding, Kilwinning. 



Agassiz's " Bibliographia Zoologize et Geologise," Ray 

 Society, 1848-54, 6 vols., octavo, cloth, good condition ; 

 Cuvier's "Animal Kingdom," half bound, green calf, good 

 condition. What offers'!' — Joseph Anderson, jun., Aire Villa, 

 Chichester. 



What offers (specimens, &c), for 3 vols. Science-Gossip, 

 2 years in each vol., for 1877-82, neatly bound in cloth, clean 

 and in good condition? — Jno. Schofield, 4 Shore Bank, Com- 

 mercial Street, Huddersfield. 



Duplicates. — Zonites draparnaldi, V. edentula, Spkerium 

 ovali, CI- iaminaia, Cochlicopa tndens, H. hor. var. minor, 

 A. fluviatilis var. albina, &c. Wanted, all varieties of Helix 

 aspersa. — Robert Wigglesworth, 13 Arthur Street, Clayton-le- 

 moors, Lanes. 



Offered, five specimens of Vertigo aniivertigo, Vertigo 

 alpestris, Vertigo substriaia. I will give any or all of them 

 for a few examples of any of the following : Succinea oblonga, 

 Limnea involuta, Vertigo Lilljeborgi, Vertigo Moulinsianu, 

 Vertigo tumida. — A. Hartley, 8 Cavendish Road, Idle, near 

 Bradford, Yorkshire. 



Science-Gossip for 1884 and 1885, unbound, coloured plates, 

 complete, offered for a second-hand copy of Shuckhard's 

 " Bees," or Rye's " Beetles."— W. H. Warner, Fyfield, 

 Abingdon. 



For exchange, 2 micro-slides of Syenite rock and lime- 

 stone, Dorset, by J. N. Also vol. 1 of " The Garner," 12 Nos. 

 " Naturalist World," 13 Nos. Cassell's "New Popular Educa- 

 tor," up to date. Wanted, Books on birds or moths. — Norvill, 

 5 Montagu Street, Worthing. 



Wanted, marine shells from north and east coasts, in 

 exchange for those of Devon and Cornwall. — Mrs. Hodgson, 

 Chalgrave Vicarage, Leightou Buzzard, Beds. 



Duplicates of fossils, chalk, greensand, gault, oolite, !ia?, 



