14^ 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



arranged in regular order, as most delicate cellules. 

 Each spore is capable of infection, and becoming the 

 starting-point of a new existence, and considering 

 that the nidus of its future development is the tissue 

 of a living plant, it may be difficult to conceive how 

 it finds admittance. It is supposed that the spore 

 reaches the host through the stomata, or respiratory 

 pores found on leaves, but a difficulty here presents 

 itself — it is possible the stomata may not permit 

 entrance, and it is ascertained that the spore itself 

 has first to undergo a change, and become "vesi- 

 cular." In Dr. Taylor's Book on "The Sagacity 

 and Morality of Plants," is represented (Fig. 90) the 

 cuticle of a wheat leaf with two spores of Puccinia 

 graminis (a mildew) throwing out filaments (the 

 vascular condition) penetrating the stomata of the 

 cuticle ; but beyond this actual access to the tissues, 

 it has been proved that "seeds" of wheat may be 

 inoculated with spores of "bunt," the result only 

 appearing in its fungoid character, when the corn has 

 attained considerable growth. It would therefore 

 appear that the germ, or some after condition of 

 it, must be absorbed into the seed, follow its evolu- 

 tion, and necessarily traverse, or be carried forward 

 by, the growing tissues. Its progress and development 

 is obscured, no bright "cup" bursts through the 

 cuticle of the wheat to disclose its presence, and, 

 although the mischief may be suspected, by a weak- 

 ness and discoloration in the plant, it is frequently 

 never discovered until the grain has ripened, when 

 instead of sweet starch, the fetid black bunt dust is 

 found. 



There are many species of British CEcidiacei easily 

 procured, affording beautiful objects for the micro- 

 scope ; freshly gathered they are brilliant in colour, 

 curious in ari^angement, and interesting in connection 

 with the disruptions they cause in the tissues of 

 their host. An extensive collection of the microscopic 

 forms may be "cabineted" without difficulty, slips 

 of thin wood of the well-known size perforated in the 

 centre are the most convenient means of preserving 

 opaque botanical subjects not requiring very high 

 powers, such as fungi, lichens, sori of ferns, pollens, 

 ■&c. The method is simple ; a piece of gummed paper 

 beneath the perforation, and a thin glass cover 

 fastened on the surface, is enough. They are light, 

 pack closely : and the cell not being absolutely air- 

 tight, the inner side of the covering glass does not 

 become dimmed by moisture. The specimen should 

 be dry before enclosure, such minute objects are more 

 secure and accessible for examination than when 

 preserved in an herbarium. As a proof, the subject 

 of the plate has been drawn (under reflected light) 

 from a fragment, mounted in this way, fifteen years 

 ago, procured from the collection of three hundred 

 specimens pubhshcd or issued, by Dr. M. C. Cooke, 

 under the title, " Fungi Britannici Exsiccati," and it 

 appears by his note to have been collected in 1866 ; 

 it has lost, for drawing purposes, nothing in colour or 



character, but what may be supplied from remem- 

 brance of living examples. Dr. Cooke's manual, 

 "Rust, Smut, Mildew, and Mould," containing 

 many coloured and well-described plates, is a most 

 valuable book of reference for the identification of 

 Microscopic Fungi. 



Living minute fungoid growths may be preserved, 

 and developments watched, by keeping the leaves 

 and stems of the plants on which they are found, in 

 a box half full of damp peat earth, and decayed wood, 

 covered with a sheet of glass. 



Crouch End. 



THE PEDIGREE OF THE ELEPHANT. 

 By R. Lydeker, M.A., F.G.S. 



\Contimted from page 133.] 



THE last group of elephants with which we have to 

 deal is another section of primitive elephants, in 

 which the number of ridges is reduced to three in the 

 middle teeth, and to four in the last. This section 

 also comprises three Indian species to which the 

 names of Falconer's elephant, Pandion's elephant, 

 and the narrow-toothed elephant, have been applied. 

 In the first species it is believed that there were tusks 

 in the upper jaw only, and the form of the chin was 

 probably not very unlike that]of the modern elephants ; 

 but in the second and third species the chin, or 

 extremity of the lower jaw, was produced into an 

 enormous spout-like process, which in Pandion's 

 elephant was as long as the whole of the rest of 

 the jaw, and in the males carried a very large pair 

 of flat-sided tusks. Owing to the smaller size of the 

 grinding-teeth in these elephants, two, or even parts 

 of three of these teeth, were in use at the same time. 

 These and other primitive elephants also differed 

 from the modern true elephants, in that the hinder 

 milk-grinders were succeeded vertically by teeth of 

 the second series, after the manner of most other 

 quadrupeds. These second teeth were, however, 

 much smaller than the milk-teeth they replaced, 

 which is quite contraiy to the condition prevailing 

 in other quadrupeds. 



In the narrow-toothed and Pandion's elephant we 

 have, so to speak, elephants reduced to their lowest 

 denomination ; and it is worth while to contrast them 

 a little more fully with the true elephants, when we 

 shall find that they differ by their middle grinding- 

 teeth, having only three broad, low ridges, separated 

 by wide, open valleys, instead of consisting of some 

 twelve or thirteen closely packed, tall, thin plates, 

 with the narrow intervening valleys completely 

 filled up. Their enormously elongated lower jaw, 

 with its large tusks, indicates a corresponding elon- 

 gation of the upper jaw, whence it is pretty evident 

 that they were furnished with a very long, snout-like 

 mouth, not unlike that of a huge pig. That these 



