HARDWICKE'S S C I E N CE-GO S S IP. 



J4l 



The Cambeu^yell Beauty. — A. yomi? lady 

 canijbt on Easter Tuesday (April 15t.li) a V.Antlopa, 

 ■which she kiiidiy jjave to nie. What makes this 

 incident more remarkable is, that it was captured 

 on a window-sill almost in the heart of London, 

 viz., near Finsbury Square. — E. Matthews. 



White Oxlip. — Tn case of its interesting? any of 

 your botanical readers, I bop: to inform you that 

 last spring:, beins; in Sussex, 1 found a white prim- 

 rose, which at the time I took to be of the oxlip 

 type, two of the flowers beincr joined low down near 

 the root by their stalks. I planted it in my jjarden 

 here, and tiiis year it has developed into a regular 

 white oxlip. Wliite primroses are, I know, not un- 

 common, but I have never seen a white oxlip. 

 — Windsor Hambrough. 



(Enantiie ckocata (pp. 93, 11 8).— There is good 

 authority for calling the root of this very poisonous 

 plant "sweet." Mr. Worthingtou Smitii, in some 

 remarks on a case of death of a man and cart-horse 

 from eating the roots of ffinanthe {Nature, vol. i. 

 p. 356), goes on to say : " You remark, 'it seems 

 strange that the horse as well as the man should 

 not have rejected a plant of so acrid and suspicious 

 a flavour.' Now the flavour of the root of this 

 plant is known to be mild and pleasant, and not 

 acrid. I can confirm the truth of its mild taste 

 from experience, as I have twice eaten portions of 

 the root for experiment : the taste is intermediate 

 between that of a turnip and the stalk of celery." 

 Tliis is pretty much what we should call " sweet." 

 The smell of the root, however, is certainly, judging 

 from my own experience, rather overpowering ; but 

 the dura messorum ilia are not generally accompanied 

 by too highly developed olfactory nerves. I may 

 add, from the same source, that Professor Christison 

 found that plants gathered in certain localities 

 were harmless,_ while otheis from dill'erent places 

 were highly poisonous.— i2. A. Pry or. 



Beautiful Pisn. — Pish of every shape and 

 colour were swimming lazily in and out of the 

 black -looking caves and fissures, or coasting 

 round under the overhanging edges of the coral 

 precipices; some of the finest cobalt-blue, some 

 golden, some pink, some more like beautiful orange 

 and purple butterflies than natives of the sea, 

 with long white rat-thils, swimming or floatin5> front- 

 ways, stern-ways, side-ways, with apparently equal 

 ease and partiality ; some variegated like harle- 

 quins ; many, not with their hues more or less 

 blending into each other where they meet, like 

 Christian fishes, but mathematically divided by 

 regular distinct lines, as if they had paid for their 

 colours and had them laid on l)y tlie square 

 inch. — "South-Sea Bubbles" by the Earl and the 

 Doctor. 



Something like Gnats. — "The gnats in Ame- 

 rica (says Mouffet) do so plash and cut that 

 they will pierce through very thick clothing, so 

 that it is excellent sport to behold how ridicu- 

 lously the barbarous people, when they are bitten, 

 will strip and frisk and slap with their hands their 

 shoulders, arms, and sides, even as a carter doth his 

 liorse." Weld tells us that these inseets were " so 

 powerful and bloodthirsty that they actually pierced 

 through General Washington's boots ! " This does 

 not appear very credible, though Mouffet says, "In 

 Italy, near thePo, great store, and very gieatones, are 

 to be seen, terrible for biting and venomous, piercing 

 through a thrice-double stocking and boots likewise, 



sometimes leaving behind them impoysoned, hnrd, 

 blue tumours, sometimes painful bladders, sometimes 

 itching pimples, such as Hippocrates hath observed 

 in his Epidemics in the bodv of one Cyrus, a fuller, 

 being frantic." — Rennie, "Insect Miscellanies." 



"With man has commenced a new cycle of 

 existence, mental and moral, intended to progress 

 ail infinitum. One creation, the physical, has 

 graduated into another, the intellectual, and the 

 natural yearninss of the human soul are towards its 

 higher stage of existence." — Taylor's " Geology of 

 Manchester." 



" Osteology has special importance in com- 

 parison with the study of any other system, inas - 

 much as large numbers of animals, all in fact of 

 those not at present existing on the earth, can be 

 known to us by little else than the form of their 

 bones." — Flower's " Introduction to the Osteology of 

 the Mammalia." 



New Insect Net (page 32). — If one may venture 

 to criticise an article which one has not tried ex- 

 perimentally, I would remark that an objection to 

 the new net is to be found in the fact that it cannot 

 conveniently be taken to pieces when not in use. 

 No doubt, the proposed construction gives increased 

 security, but some entomologists decidedly object 

 to exhibit their implements to the public gaze. By 

 no means, however, can it be said to be too small, 

 since one of much less dimensions is frequently 

 most excellent for working along the hedge-rows 

 and wood-ridings for geometrse. But on the question 

 of weight, again, I am not sure that too light a net 

 is good, because a certain amount of weight in the 

 ring gives a greater degree of steadiness to the 

 stroke. This is, at least, the experience of some 

 iuseet-huuters who are very successful. — J.R.S. C. 



Do Pishes move after Death? — Your corre- 

 spondent "D. H. T." is not aware, perhaps, that some 

 kinds of fishes are known to live very frequently 

 for some considerable period when they are out of 

 water. If he makes observations, he will doubtless 

 find that the Goby is not the only fish that will be 

 found gasping four days after it has been out of the 

 waler and apparently dead. He n)ay rest assured 

 that he was only apparently, and not actually dead. 

 ~W. S. Palmer. 



Notes on the Siskin.— This bird, when kept 

 in confinement, does not seem capable of the strong 

 personal attaclnnent which the goldlinch may be 

 made to manifest, though it is not unlike it in some 

 of its habits. Like the goldlinch, it is excessively 

 fond of hemp, and will cram itself with that seed, 

 if allowed to do so, until it returns from the crop. 

 Also it is particularly timid when approached by 

 strangers, and is even alarmed if those who are 

 well known to it come near with any unusual gar- 

 ment, or wearing a hat, an article v/liieh seems to 

 be particularly terrific to the siskin. The song of 

 this bird, when caged, ceases, as usual, in the 

 moulting season, but it is not immediately resumed ; 

 about the beginning of Pebruary it begins to utter 

 a few low, occasional notes, coming into full song 

 in March.—/. R. S. C. 



Ilnw DO Haddocks Spawn?— Prom my own 

 knowledge, and from tlie statement of several fish- 

 mongers, tliey spawn in the usual way, male and 

 female, roe and milt. Tiie fact of the two being 

 found in one fish is not usual, though there may be 

 something in the locality which induces it, as the 



