HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P. 



21 ' 



invidious comparisons between organs specially 

 adapted to differing purposes. Nevertheless, the 

 evolution theory has so accustomed us to the use of 

 such terms as " higher and lower forms," " progres- 

 sion and retrogression," that in order to answer the 

 evolutionist, he must be met on his own ground. It 

 might be more correct to deny the existence of a 

 " typical standard" by which the organs of animals, 

 whose environment differs, could be measured, but 

 since such standards are claimed to exist, it is most 

 reasonable to look for them in man. But your 

 correspondent Mr. Tansley has out-Darwined 

 Darwin, in asserting that " the muscles of our arms 

 and chest . . . have fallen away from the typical 

 standard exemplified in the lower animals," for 

 while I am quite ready, as he supposes, to admit 

 that they are "more perfect" in man than in the 

 gorilla, I cannot do better than quote Mr. Darwin 

 himself in support of my belief. 



He says, "Although the intellectual powers and 

 social habits of man are of paramount importance to 

 him, we must not underrate the importance of his 

 bodily structure .... To throw a stone with as 

 true an aim as a Fuegian in defending himself, or in 

 killing birds, requires the most consummate perfection in 

 the correlated action of the muscles of the hand, arm 

 and shoulder, and further, a fine sense of touch." 



When any quality surpassing this "consummate 

 perfection" is to be found in the structure of the 

 gorilla, then only need we look upon it as the 

 typical standard from which we have fallen. — Nina 

 F. Layard. 



Ground Ivy. — While searching for orchids the 

 other day (June 23rd) my interest was aroused by 

 observing a curious appearance in the above plant. 

 A large quantity of ground ivy I noticed as having 

 a remarkable growth in the leaves, one at least on 

 each stalk having a substance about the size of a 

 small cherry, apparently growing out of the leaf. On 

 examining and dissecting one, I found the growth to 

 be a kind of gall, consisting of an outer case of a 

 substance resembling the rind of an apple, then a 

 kind of spongy or woolly material, and finally a cell 

 containing a minute maggot. Some of the galls had 

 two or three cells, containing the insects, and ap- 

 peared as if double. Can any one tell me if this is 

 common to the plant, also the name of the parasite ? 

 I may add, every plant I noticed in the immediate 

 vicinity of those first examined were afflicted in the 

 same manner, while those in other places were free 

 from the insect. — F. H. IK 



Yew-Trees, their Size and Age.— Since the 

 correspondence on the above subject has come for- 

 ward, I thought I would measure a fine old yew m 

 the churchyard at Much Marcle, Herefordshire. I 

 find the circumference at a distance of about 6 ft. 

 from the ground, to be 25 ft. 5 ins. This gives a 

 diameter of 8 ft. i.^ ins. (taking n = 'f ) or 1164 lines, 

 indicating an age of 1164 years. I must not forget 

 to say that the tree is hollow, and there are seats 

 inside. Now should the width of this opening be 

 taken into consideration in measuring the circum- 

 ference ? In other words, has the fissure been caused 

 by a rent or by the removal of a portion of the tree ? 

 I think most probably the former. This supposition 

 will, of course, considerably reduce the age of the 

 tree. — C/ias. A. What mo re, M.C.S. 



Natural History Notes. — The following notes 

 might be interesting to your readers. On the 3rd of 

 June I took a freshly emerged specimen of Cohas 

 edusa. Isn't this very early for the appearance of this 

 butterfly ? On the 8th July I passed a garden with a 



good quantity of ferns growing in it, and all of them 

 except a few — viz. S. vulgaris, O. regalis, and 

 A. nigrum — had the ends of the fronds branching 

 out. Can any correspondent account for this phe- 

 nomenon, as there was no peculiarity in the position, 

 except that they were facing the north 1—E. E. Lowe. 



Dissolving Gum Tragacanth. — In your book 

 " Notes on Collecting and Preserving Natural His- 

 tory Objects," at page 133, you mention the Gum 

 Tragacanth being dissolved in gum arabic. I find 

 some difficulty in getting the former to assimilate 

 thoroughly. Can any reader please state what I can 

 add to cause it to do so ? I may say that it proves 

 satisfactory, excepting occasionally, when a rather 

 large piece comes up, and that generally when one 

 wants it to be the opposite, for mounting such a 

 plant as one enclosed. — J. F. H. 



The White Rocks of Castille and Red' 

 Rock of the Moselle. — " The way to Heaven is as 

 near, if not nearer, from Syria as from England, or 

 my native Spain," remarked the Queen of Charing, 

 piqued with our proverbial climate ; and if ever 

 creation dawned in a transparent, dry and elastic air, 

 you may breathe its enchantment when the constella- 

 tion Virgo sheds its influence on the corn-land of 

 Castille. Wildly magical and full of light is then 

 the silent night ; the Milky Way glitters around like 

 a diamond cincture, and angels appear to descend 

 with burning torches and jewelled crowns to gather 

 in the golden ears. When the sun arise ; , flowers the 

 most urbane gleam like tinsel over this tree-less waste 

 of limestone and sand, white and sparkling as 

 wedding-cake paste ; and heated by the glow, they 

 exhale delicate aromas that the same species seem 

 quite to want in our damp, northern air. Roots out 

 of dry ground, they one and all are adapted to the 

 parched soi', in being woolly or wiry, or soft, fleshy 

 and glandular, and thus they live on and soak in from 

 the dews the nourishment denied to their rootlets. 

 You may notice this in the mealy composite, Chon- 

 drilla juncea, in the flesh-coloured Jerusalem sage 

 (Phlomis), in the purple sandworts full of colour, in 

 the yellow thistle [Scotymus hispanicus), in the wiry 

 stalks of the annual tansey, dwarfed pinks, and stone- 

 crops, or even in the downy and inconspicuous 

 Holosteum umbellicum too easily mistaken for a 

 plantain. The very stalks of the buck's horn 

 plantain appear here a trifle more woody and tough. 

 But among the loveliest of Castillian wild flowers, the 

 frail blue pimpernel shuns the drought and bathes its 

 beauty in the perpetual freshness of the river bank ; ^ 

 strange too, for with us these are also flowers of the 

 corn-field though impatient of the shower. The 

 gutta-percha hills and steppes that arise out of these 

 shining plains resemble so many icebergs ; and when, 

 the dust drives along their summery vines in smoky 

 puffs, they present the dreary appearance of eternal 

 frost. Everything on their slopes is then crisp and 

 candied as if encrusted by a petrifying spring ; the 

 scorched grass, flowers, flies, and grasshoppers, are 

 alike liveried in silvery white. The Chalk Hill blue 

 buttei flies (Polyommatus corydon) are indeed so large 

 and white as they come dashing along the road as to 

 be perfectly unrecognisable ; and Polyommatus dorylus, 

 only to be distinguished in the shadows from the 

 common blue by a cerulean flash, and. only differing 

 in the absence of two spots at the base of its fore 

 wings, trust we Professor Leller, is often to be seen 

 abroad in similar disguise. Here, however, the 

 change is structural, for the wing tcales are newly 

 adorned with yellowish white. True it is that on. 

 chalk and limestone most of the butterfly and moth 



