HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



Books on InsectAnatomy(p.20).— ThefollowiiiEc 

 amongst others, may be recommended to " J. S.H." 

 if he can obtain them,. ryoor/ works on the subject being 

 mostly scarce : — " Swammerdam's History of In- 

 sects," English edition, with Ur. Hill's notes, pub- 

 lished about a century ago, and worth, second-hand, 

 about a guinea. " Wilson's Treatise on Insects, 

 General and Systematic," with 5-10 figures, published 

 at 15s., contains, 1 believe, some anatomical details. 

 "Ormerod's British Social Wasps, their Anatomy 

 and Physiology," is good on that section of insects. 

 "Adams on the Microscope" contains much inform- 

 ation on insect anatomy : it is not, however, a 

 modern book. "Professor Owen's Anatomy and 

 Physiology" is excellent but expensive, since the 

 portion treating of insects cannot be purchased 

 sepai'ately ; and the same remark must be made 

 upon "Professor Bymer Jones's Outline of the 

 Organization of the Animal Kingdom." Much in- 

 formation upon the anatomy of various groups is to 

 be found in the works of Latreille, Halliday, West- 

 wood, Macleay, Newport, and Lowuc.— /. li. S, C. 



Oak Spangles. — After many microscopical in- 

 vestigations I find myself quite unable to under- 

 stand " Oak-leaf spangles," either as regards their 

 connection witli the leaf, or the difference in struc- 

 ture observable between them and the leaf. The 

 article in Science-Gossip for October, 1866, does 

 not explain this. Can you kindly tell me how I can 

 get the information I want ? The difference in 

 structure is most marked in presence of the curious 

 tufts of hairs (?) on their surface ; and their connec- 

 tion with the cuticle is so slight at one point only, 

 that one can hardly understand their being formed 

 by a modification of its cells. — Arthur R. Graham. 



A White Spabuow. — I have, on many occasions 

 during the last twelve months, observed a house 

 sparrow {Passer clomesticus), whose" plumage is 

 very nearly entirely white, in the neighbourhood of 

 my residence It is frequently seen in the company 

 of other sparrows, and with them drinks at a fountain 

 which is situated at the extreme eud of the garden 

 adjoining the house. The bird has a few feathers 

 in each wing which are, towards the tips, of a greyish 

 colour, and there are also indications of similar 

 feathers in the neck. The rest of the plumage 

 appears to be quite white, and was formerly much 

 more so, previously to the first moulting, than at 

 present. It is a last year's bird, a fact which I 

 determined by looking at it particularly through 

 a telescope and observing the bill, &c. There is no 

 question as to its being a sparrow, for very many 

 reasons. Its manner of flight is precisely the same, 

 and its size, bill, &c., are analogous to those of these 

 common birds. I believe that a " white sparrow " 

 is a great rarity, and therefore write to apprise you 

 of the existence of one in this neighborhood. It 

 may be interesting to relate, also, that a short time 

 ago I saw a rook {Corvus frngilegus) which dis- 

 played several white feathers in his wings. This 

 fact rests on the authority of many observers, as also 

 does that of the white sparrow. — IFilliavi F. Den- 

 ning, Bristol. 



The Harvest Bug. — My experience of this 

 troublesome little creature differs widely from that 

 of Mr. Cape. A hot summer is a great misery to 

 me, as these creatures are all over the farm, but arc 

 especially troublesome on my croquet lawn, which 

 is situate on a raised terrace of sandy soil. In wet 

 weather they seem to be washed away, and to be 

 killed by cold. Hence, whatever other pains the 



wet summers of 1S7I and 1872 have brought the 

 farmers, the cold rains of these snnmicrs have 

 greatly lessened the harvest bugs. The elevations 

 of the skin caused by these creatures are commonly 

 called heat-bumps, and many a nauseous dose had I 

 to take in my youth on the supposition that these 

 bumps were due to heat of blood. W^e have tried 

 lots of remedies for the irritation, but find none so 

 good as not rubbing, if one can have the patience to 

 keep therefrom. — /. Buchman. 



Are Beech-trees exempt from Injury by 

 Lightning? — In relation to the above, the following 

 is an extract from a letter in the linglish Mechanic, 

 6th Sept., 1872, p. 650 :-" Lightning and Thunder 

 — Without having seen a large tree the day after its 

 destruction, one can hardly form an idea of the tre- 

 mendous force exhibited. I had such a view of a 

 beech-tree, that was probably one of the largest in 

 England, and may be remembered as standing before 

 the elder chalk-pit west of Caversham, Oxon. The 

 trunk, about six feet in diameter and perfectly sound 

 to the heart, had been cleft, and, except the lowest 

 yard or two, had fallen with the limbs in all direc- 

 tions, with most of its wood in minutely separated 

 fibres like over-stewed meat, and seeming fit to go 

 into a paper-mill, and with very little more pound- 

 ing form pulp. The fibres were also bleached whiter 

 than parts that had been out of the lightning's 

 track. — E. L. G." Perhaps some of your corre- 

 spondents could inform us the usual appearances of 

 trees after being struck by lightning, and the posi- 

 tion in which such trees stood. — /. D. Miall. 



Stratiotes. — Can any of the readers of [the 

 SciENCE-GossiP inform me if Stratiotes aloicles, the 

 " Water Soldier," is still found in the ponds of 

 Wandsworth Common, as I have not been able to 

 discover it there ? — /. G., Clapham Road. 



Erythema Centaurium (Common Centaury). 

 — We have gathered examples with brilliant 

 white flowers, which, if they come true from seed, 

 would make an interesting garden plant. It oc- 

 curred on the oolite sands, and is so thoroughly 

 white that, if a mere sport due to season, it is a 

 remarkable one. — /. B., Bradford Abbas. 



Bural Natural History. — On reading the 

 rural recipe named for " chink cough," and the 

 remark that, to " record others might be amusing," 

 I venture to name some that were recommended to 

 me when living at Tonbridge, where I was a sufferer 

 from ague, and as a district visitor (young and sym- 

 patliizing) was beloved ; so the poor people often, 

 when asking how I was, would suggest each their 

 kind but "certain cui"e." " Now do, dear miss, be 

 sure and cut your nails of a Wednesday ;" and 

 again — "live spiders rubbed up in butter and 

 eaten," was first-rate ; also — "tie with some worsted 

 an onion round the neck." lu Essex, where I 

 afterwards went, the ague is very prevalent. 

 Curious to say, there I never had it, so conclude 

 miasma from the Medway gave it me, not damp; 

 and in Bayswater I have it, the drainage being bad. 

 The children in Sunday scliool used merely to 

 say, "only the ager, ma'am," and they thought 

 pitch pills would cure it. In Guernsey, the poor 

 people make their mattress of Vriac seaweed, and 

 pile it in their cottages as fuel, and consider it 

 healthy ; and I believe it is so, as it is that from 

 which iodine is abstracted. In Prance, an old 

 woman told me to take a small piece of hair exactly 

 at the top of my head and twist round a little slip 

 of wood tightly,' to cure a relaxed uvula, or sore 



