28o 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



year. The report states that forty-four meetings 

 have been held during the year, and there have been 

 several pleasant excursions. 



The Geological Photograph Committee of the 

 British Association have issued a third circular to 

 arrange for the collection, preservation, and 

 systematic registration of photographs of geological 

 interest in the United Kingdom. 



Mr. R. L. Wallace's works ("British Cage 

 Birds" and " The Canary Book"), have reached the 

 seventh number, published by L. Upcott Gill, I/O 

 Strand. The illustrations are excellent. 



There is a capital and appreciative review of Dr. 

 Von Lendelfeld's splendid " Monograph of the Horny 

 Sponges," a huge volume recently published by the 

 Royal Society, in the November issue of the " Annals 

 and Magazine of Natural History." 



Messrs. W. Wesley and Son (28 Essex Street, 

 Strand), have just issued No. 104 of their most useful 

 Natural History and Scientific Book Circular, relating 

 to works and pamphlets on Botany, Conchology, 

 Entomology, Mammalia, Ornithology, Ichthyology, 

 Physical Science, &c. 



Mr. Lawrence Hamilton M.R.C.S. of 

 Brighton, has issued a leaflet on " Fish and 

 Leprosy " which we strongly commend to all think- 

 ing as well as reading men. 



The "Geological Magazine" for November con- 

 tains a description (illustrated) of two new species of 

 Miocene echinoderms discovered by Dr. J. E. Taylor 

 during his recent visit to Australia. They were 

 found in the limestone cliffs of the Murray river, at 

 Morgan, South Australia. 



We beg to draw the attention of our readers to 

 the " List of Animal Parasites " issued by Mr. C. J. 

 Watkins, King's Mill House, Painsvvick, Gloucester- 

 shire. It will be especially interesting to students of 

 the Anoplura. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Hinton's New Slides. — We have just received 

 two beautifully mounted specimens from Mr. Ernest 

 Hinton, 12 Vorley Road, Upper Holloway, one 

 being the phantom shrimp {Caprdla linearis) of 

 S. Australia, and the other one of the Tubularian 

 zoophytes so common on the same coast. The latter 

 has its tentacles fully expanded. Both objects are 

 unusually beautiful with the paraboloid or polariscope, 

 and the zoophyte, with its gonophores, is a very 

 instructive object indeed. 



The Royal Microscopical Society.— The last 

 number of the well-read and splendidly edited 



"Journal," besides the capital summary of " Current 

 Researches relating to Zoology and, Botany," &c, con- 

 tains well-worked out bits of genuine good work in 

 the papers by Messrs. H. W. Burrows, C. D. 

 Sherborn, and the Rev. George Bailey, on "The 

 Foraminifera of the Red Chalk of Yorkshire, Norfolk, 

 and Lincolnshire " (accompanied by four crowded, 

 excellently illustrated plates of figures) ; and an im- 

 portant though brief note by Dr. H. B. Brady, F.R.S., 

 " On a New Type of Foraminifera of the Familjr 

 Chilostomellid." 



ZOOLOGY. 



Colours of Animals.— Mr. Tansley's disserta- 

 tions in recent numbers of your journal on the insect- 

 selection theory, etc., possess the merits of clearness 

 and definiteness. Without wishing to take part in 

 the discussion, I should like to ofler a few remarks 

 which may be taken for what they are worth. Every- 

 body, I suppose, who reads the popular journals or 

 listens to the lime-light lecturer, has by this time raised 

 some idea as to the nature and purport of the theory 

 aforesaid. It is clearly an outcome of Darwinism as 

 distinguished from Lamarkism. Cross-fertilisation in 

 plants is a benefit whereby the congenital variations 

 thereof, as distinguished from the acquired characters 

 or functionally produced modifications of structure, 

 can be "selected " and transmitted. Insects are the 

 chief agents in the operation of cross-fertilisation, 

 and the bright colours of flowers are the chief agents 

 in the attracting insects to discharge this function. 

 The colours, therefore, have a distinct " physiological 

 value," or "physiological significance;" and only 

 granting for a moment what is extremely questionable, 

 viz., that they actually do attract insects, they 

 evidently seem very fitting subjects for the operation 

 of that utilitarian principle of preservation called 

 " natural selection." That operation in this case may 

 be exhibited as follows :—" Among the numerous 

 spontaneous variations which are ever occurring 

 among flowers, bees are supposed to select for their 

 visits those best suited to them and to neglect the 

 others. The former receive the advantages of cross- 

 fertilisation, and consequently vanquish the others. 

 By a process of living down those which have not 

 varied, or varied in the wrong direction, the favoured 

 variety attains the rank of a distinct species. It is 

 assumed of course that the largest, most get-at-able, 

 and most brilliant flowers are those best suited to the 

 visits of bees, etc., and of these flowers the blue and 

 red are preferred to the yellow, white, or greenish. 

 Now, bees frequent flowers in order to gather honey 

 and pollen, and the further assumption inevitably 

 follows, that the blue and red flowers are more highly 

 charged with these substances than the others are. 

 Is that so ? What says the physiological chemist ? 

 Again, blue is preferred to red, and the like double 



