34 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Raw meat, chopped up small, seemed the most suitable 

 thing for an experiment. And this I tried. As just 

 stated, he took it without the slightest hesitation or 

 timidity. And after he had amply supped, first 

 taking care to provide him with a saucer of water, 

 and looking once more to the security of the 

 fastenings of his prison, I left him for the night. 



But in the morning he was gone. Not one bolt 

 or bar of his prison had been disturbed. Everything 

 was left as I had left it overnight — with the exception 

 of the meat, that is to say, for the rascal had taken care 

 to finish his supper before he departed. And then, 

 ghost or bat — he had vanished without paying his bill, 

 and without leaving the slightest trace of the manner of 

 his disappearance ! The ghost-theory began to look up 

 again, and I felt uncomfortable. His cage had been 

 left in the drawing-room all night, and unless he had 

 flown up the chimney he must still — barring the 

 ghost-theory — be somewhere in the room. The 

 most careful and patient search, however, failed to 

 reveal him. The bat had fled, and though not 

 actually moved to tears, I confess that it was with 

 some tribulation, and the faint semblance of a heart- 

 ache, that I felt that in all probability I should 

 never set eyes on my little pet again, or only perhaps 

 discover him after the lapse of years (as I once 

 discovered a newt that had escaped from my 

 aquarium) dead, stiff, and cold, a wretched and 

 hapless little corpse, jammed tight behind the drawing- 

 room piano. 



However, though search throughout the day proved 

 fruitless, when evening came on a sort of splash of 

 brown mud was discernible on the white cornice of 

 the drawing-room ceiling. This was the bat who 

 had emerged from whatever hole or crevice he had 

 been concealing himself in during the day, and was 

 now waiting — doubtless expectant of another supper. 

 The proceedings of the preceding evening were then 

 again repeated — except that, after being again 

 captured in the butterfly net, he was this time con- 

 signed to a safer prison in the shape of a wire meat 

 guard (one of those used in the summer to keep off 

 flies) placed over the tray. There he has remained 

 safely incarcerated till the present date. In fact, 

 Victor Hugo's fine line with reference to the escape 

 of Marshal Bazaine is strictly applicable to him :^ 



' Et gut done inaintena7ti dit gu'il s'est evade ? " 



He seems perfectly happy in captivity, and eats 

 bread and milk out of my hand. Raw meat he will 

 not touch, nor underdone meat. He has decided 

 tastes of his own, preferring mutton to beef, and 

 highly relishing chicken. 



Contrary to expectation, he does not seem to care 

 for flies. He darts at them, seizes them and shakes 

 Ihem as a dog does a bone — but then abandons them, 

 and goes back to his bread and milk. As a rule he 

 sleeps during the day, generally waking up in a very 

 lively and hungry condition about eight o'clock in 



the evening. His sleeping position is always head 

 downwards, hanging suspended from the wire roof of 

 his cage. Bats, I believe, generally die in this head- 

 downward position. 



Altogether, I can recommend 'all persons — espe- 

 cially those of aesthetic tastes — in search of a new 

 pet, to capture a long-eared bat, and tame him. It 

 is because mice are so common, and bats so un- 

 common, as pets — and because a bat, if the fact were 

 only more usually known, is an infinitely prettier and 

 quainter and more interesting creature than a mouse — 

 that I have written this little account of my "strange 

 visitor," — in the hope of making more widely known 

 the name by which we have elected to designate the 

 curious little living lump of fur and claws and skia 

 and leather — the name of " Tommy the Bat." 



George Barlow, 



ON THE DISTRIBUTION OF PLANTS WITH 

 REGARD TO THE ROCKS BENEATH, 



WHEN some years ago, I first commenced to 

 make observations on this subject, in my 

 own neighbourhood, Godalming, I was under the 

 impression that mineral, or, perhaps, I should say 

 chemical, composition of the rocks, would entirely 

 influence the distribution of our flora. On the whole 

 this seems to be the general rule ; there are however 

 some facts which seem to prove that there are other 

 causes which influence distribution. In this paper, I 

 must of course entirely make use of local examples, 

 but I wish it to be understood that I send these 

 remarks to your columns, not so much as a record of 

 local facts, as to give a stimulus to inquiry in other 

 districts. First, I may mention the beech {Fagus 

 sylvatica). This is abundant on the chalk, especially 

 along the escarpment, whilst upon the lower green- 

 sand it is well-nigh unknown, until you come to the 

 sandstone beds, which are nearly, I think, devoid of 

 calcareous matter ; these beds form the escarpment of 

 the lower greensand, where the beech is particularly 

 abundant,* take Hascombe Beech for example. The 

 absence of this tree from the intervening area, is, tO' 

 my thinking, somewhat remarkable, seeing that a good 

 part of that area is covered by beds of a local lime- 

 stone called bargate, forming the top of the Hythe 

 group. This bargate stone area has not a few chalk- 

 loving plants, take for example the spindel, the 

 cornel, and more sparingly clematis vitalba, and 

 Vihimum laiitana, and many other chalk or limestone 

 plants, which I have never seen along the escarpment 

 of the lower greensand. The whitebeam also fre- 

 quents the escarpment of the chalk and lower green- 



* I believe it will be found that the same distribution of 

 the beech, appertains on the south side of the Weald, as on 

 the north, where all the aspects are of course reversed, but 

 1 shall be glad to have this corroborated. 



