I02 



HARJ) WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSSIF. 



this gall, forming a calyx as it were, but ate more 

 often thrown off. The auxiliary budlets, therefore, 

 which produce acorns, are correctly called subterminal. 

 All flower buds are either terminal or subterminal. 

 The bud which ordinarily occupies the end of a shoot 

 is merely so placed that the shoot may be eventually 

 elongated, and is not therefore (strictly speaking) 

 "terminal." In the foregoing I have endeavoured 

 to point out what is not premature development, 

 because this appears to be the best way of demon- 

 strating what is premature, thus helping to show that 

 in many cases budlets are prematurely brought forward 

 as I suggest. Many, I know, prefer considering a 

 budlet as having a determined character from the 

 first. But are they prepared to affirm that some 

 budlets are pre-ordained to be galls, irrespectively of 

 insect puncture ? Certainly not ! If then budlets 

 can be affected by insect puncture, why not by other 

 agents? It must be remembered, however, that the 

 acorn is so well developed when the leaves first unfold, 

 that the budlets must have had a determined 

 character ere the bud bursts. Not so with the gall. 

 Here the budlet must, I think, be acted on after the 

 shoot is produced. The gall then, whether Devon- 

 shire or artichoke gall, is in no way an "aborted 

 acorn" as the late Edward Newman contended. 

 When theories of this kind are advanced, it is some- 

 times difficult to say whether they are the result of a 

 firm conviction, or are merely put forth to excite 

 investigation. In the latter case they are not likely 

 to prove altogether unproductive. Returning to our 

 buds, let us look at any hawthorn hedge, and we 

 shall find that whenever a shoot of iSSi has been cut 

 off, the budlet, or even the two budlets immediately 

 below, will be brought forward as a shoot instead of 

 remaining at rest until the spring of 1882. With 

 regard to the oak, it is almost needless to observe 

 that where an axil of a leaf is occupied by an acorn 

 no budlet is produced for the following year. Thus 

 we see that the effort of reproduction is a supreme 

 effort — it rises up a shoot, so to speak. Exactly the 

 same thing happens in the case of the marble and 

 artichoke galls. In the vine, if my memory does not 

 mislead me, the thyrsus is produced on the young 

 shoot in place of a leaf, but of course no budlet is 

 produced in its axil. The tendril likewise occiipies 

 a leaf's place like the thyrsus, and like it produces no 

 auxiliary budlet. This is somewhat anomalous, a 

 great effort with an apparently small result. It may 

 be observed here that tendrils frequently have a 

 tendency to produce grapes. Some of my readers 

 will contend that natural leaves are immutable, and 

 so indeed they are when properly understood ; but it 

 must be borne in mind that there may be provisoes or 

 " saving clauses " in a law which are just as much a 

 part of the law as any of the other clauses. 



H. W, KiDD. 



Godalmini. 



NATURAL HISTORY JOTTINGS FOR iSSi. 



IN Science-Gossip, for several months past,, 

 there have appeared from various correspon- 

 dents many notices of the great scarcity of wasps 

 last year (18S1) ; but I have not observed any 

 allusion to a scarcity of the humble-bees, which was,. 

 so far as my own observation goes, almost as 

 striking. From the first of May up to its close I 

 find noted down in my diary the fact of the usual 

 plenty of the queens of the common humble-bee 

 {Bombiis terrcstris) on the wing, as well as rifling the 

 blossoms of the butterbur {Petasitcs vulgaris), the 

 catkins of the willow, the blossoms of the gooseberry 

 and currant bushes, and the honey-laden pendent 

 racemes of blossoms of the sycamore ; as well as 

 less numbers of the moss or carder-bee [Bombus 

 miiscoi-um) at the blossoms of the cowslip, butterbur 

 and gooseberry, but never at the willow catkins. 

 Also, the fact that the large queen wasps were 

 plentiful about the middle of May at the blossoms of 

 the gooseberry bushes, as well as having been 

 observed at the willow catkins or palms, as they are 

 called in the north of England. The last note I 

 have of the wasp comes under date May 30th : — 

 Observed a wasp cutting or rasping off with its 

 mandibles fibres from a stake in the hedge : there 

 has already been considerable impression made on 

 this stake by this operation, there being shallow 

 tracks of about -j'g or ^'5 inch in width, but of very- 

 inconsiderable depth, the surface layers of fibres 

 being alone cut away, and showing up the excavation 

 of woody fibres by the lighter colour of the wood 

 beneath. The day was very fine, the sunshine being 

 hot and continuous. 



On Whit-Monday, after about a fortnight of very 

 fine weather, a thunderstorm of great violence, 

 accompanied by a remarkable fall of large hail as 

 well as a heavy rainfall, occurred in the neighbour- 

 hood of Harnham and Bradford, Northumberland, 

 where I was then staying. This was succeeded by 

 some exceptionally cold days and intensely frosty 

 nights, which was, I think, sufficient to account for 

 the subsequent paucity of the humble-bees, and the 

 almost entire, if not absolute, disappearance of the 

 wasps, within my own sphere of observation. 



June 6th (Whit-Monday). — Morning fine, cool ; 

 forenoon fair, fine, but quite cool, the wind being 

 easterly, until near ten o'clock, when a severe 

 thunderstorm which had arisen in the west and was 

 travelling in a north-westerly direction, returned 

 south and broke with great violence over Harnham 

 Buildings, commencing in lightning and thunder 

 and some heavy drops of rain, shortly to be followed 

 by an excessively heavy and continuous fall of large 

 hail, accompanied with frequent vivid flashes of 

 lightning and loud quick peals of thunder, which 

 bespoke the near proximity of the storm. The 



