HARDWICKE'5 SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



65 



Amalgamation of North London Societies.— 

 Mr. G. E. Redgrave has communicated to us a 

 plan which we willingly lay before our readers, as 

 it promises to affect such as are placed within the 

 district it immediately concerns. He proposes to 

 amalgamate all the natural history societies in 

 North London, into one, to be located in the 

 Alexandra Palace, of which Mr. Redgrave is 

 manager. The company are willing to provide a 

 room for the meetings, and all necessary accommo- 

 dation for the exhibition of collections, &c. Mr. 

 Redgrave expresses his desire to receive any sug- 

 gestions, addressed to him at the Palace, with 

 reference to this proposed amalgamation. There 

 can be no doubt as to the benefits which the real- 

 ization of such a scheme would confer on students, 

 and we accordingly lay it before our readers to 

 couit such attention as it may be deemed worthy of. 



The Camberwell Beauty in January.— A 

 note reaches us from Norfolk of the occurrence of 

 a living, but torpid, specimen of the Camberwell 

 Beauty at North Create, on the 6th of January last. 

 It fell from some trees upon a lady's liat, and was 

 thus captured. 



The Light at the Bottom of tub Sea. — An 

 ingenious plan has been adopted by Professor 

 Agassiz's expedition for determining how far the 

 submarine regions are pervious to light. A plate 

 prepared for photographic purposes is inclosed in 

 a case so contrived as to be covered by a revolving 

 lid in the space of forty minutes. The apparatus 

 is sunk to the required depth, and at the expiration 

 of tlie period stated is drawn up and developed in 

 the ordinary way. It is said that evidence has thus 

 been obtained of the operation of the actinic rays 

 at much greater depths than hitherto supposed 

 possible. 



Voice of Fishes.— At a Itite meeting of the 

 Academic des Sciences, M. Charles Robin read a 

 report on the production of voice in certain fishes. 

 The swimming-bladder appears to be the principal 

 agent in producing voice, at least in those fishes in 

 which that organ has an opening into the oeso- 

 phagus ; and even in those in wliich it is a shut sac 

 it acts as a sounding-board in augmenting the 

 sound produced by other parts. That it is not ex- 

 clusively the cause of vocal sounds is shown by the 

 circumstance that some fish are destitute of a 

 swimming-bladder, and are yet capable of pro- 

 ducing distinct musical sounds. 



Rare Fresh-watek Shells.— Perhaps some 

 of the readers of Science Gossip who are col- 

 lectors of British iresh-water shells may be glad to 

 have the following note as to the exact locality of 

 two rare shells, Amphipeplea glutinosa and A. iiivo- 

 luta of Gray's Turton. The note I owe to Mr. R. 

 Gibbs, formerly fossil-collector to the Geological 



Survey, who first collected these two shells in great 

 numbers for Edward Forbes. The locality is Bala 

 Lake, and Mr. Gibbs says, in a letter a few days 

 ago—" It was at the head of the lake next the 

 ton'n that I found them in the weeds, and they look 

 like bits of glue on tiie bottom, until you take them 

 up in your hand, when they draw in the mantle and 

 expose the shell." The lake, it will be remem- 

 bered, is situated in East Merionethshire. — G. A- 

 Lebour, F.G.S. 



New Vultures. — In the February number of 

 Aimals and Magazine of Natural History, Mr. 

 Sharpe, of the British Museum, describes a new 

 species of Turkey Vulture from the Falkland 

 Islands, under the name of Catharista Falklandica, 

 He suggests that an end should be put to the 

 indefinite characters of the genus Gyps, of the Old 

 V/orld Vultures, by relegating the two species 

 whose tail-feathers are twelve in number to a 

 separate genus, which he proposes to call Pseudo- 

 Gyps. 



New British Insects.— Messrs. Douglas and 

 Scott have described, in the February number of 

 the Entomologists' Monthly Magazine, two new 

 species of British Hemiptera, under the names of 

 Athysamts canescens and A. cognattis. A few ex- 

 amples of the former were taken last July among 

 short grass on the Downs at Veutnor, and in 

 August at Birchwood and Sevenoaks, Kent. The 

 latter is rarer, and occurred in Scotland and 

 Devonshire. 



BOTANY. 



Eastbourne Natural History Society. — 

 j\lr. C. J. Muller has read an interesting paper 

 before the Eastbourne Natural History Society on 

 Geoglosswm difforme, or Earth-tongue, a peculiar 

 fungus, in which the receptacle or fruit-bearing part 

 is club-shaped, the hymenium surrounding the club. 

 He stated that this plant, like many other species of 

 fungi, consists of nothing more than separate threads 

 like the threads of a common mould ; and that it 

 differs from a mould only in the nature of its fructifi- 

 cation, and the way in wliich these threads are 

 compacted into an object of definite shape, and 

 considerable consistence. The same remark applies 

 to mushrooms and many other species of fungi, and 

 indicates the vast resources of nature in multiplying 

 forms from one simple element, a delicate tubular 

 filament. Mr. F. C. S. Roper, F.L.S., read, at the 

 same meeting, some notes on the Wall Pellitory 

 [Parietaria officinalis), in which he noticed some 

 peculiarities of structure in the leaves, of much 

 interest to the microscopist. If a leaf is placed in 

 water under the microscope, the two kinds of hairs 

 are seen. The most abundant are long, slightly 



