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HARnWlCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



exception seems to have been met with more than 

 once. Mr. H. O. Sterland does not seem to have 

 preserved the specimens, or to have mentioned the 

 place where these curiosities are found.—//. P. 31. 



The Missel Thritsh.— I should feel obliged if 

 you could crive me some little information about 

 the Missel Thrush, Turdus viscivorns. Storm Cock, 

 or as it is called in Derbyshire, Nottinghapishire, 

 and indeed. I believe, all the Midland counties, the 

 Thrice Cock. 1. Can you tell me why it is called 

 Thrice Cock ? I have looked in five or six Natural 

 Histories, — Yarrell, Macgillivray, Pennant's, &c.,— 

 but 1 can find no mention whatever of the name 

 by which the bird is wholly known amongst the 

 common people in Birmingham, Derbyshire, and 

 many other places in this midland district. _ 2. Can 

 you tell me if tiie name is to be found in print, and 

 if so, in what book ?— 5. B. R. 



Ipswich Amber. — I have never met with this 

 production ; but some years back, when Hunstanton 

 (on the Norfolk coast) was comparatively in- 

 accessible, the lighthouse-keeper on St. Edmund's 

 Point was in the habit of selling amber that he 

 professed to have gathered on the shore below after 

 the storms of wint er. There is no doubt that the 

 substance was what it claimed to be, and I know 

 of no reason for questioning the veracity of the 

 finder. Jet also occurred in some quantity. — 

 R. A. Pryor. 



Botanical Record Club. — It is difficult to 

 understand what ol)ject the promoters of the pro- 

 prosed "Botanical Locality Record Club" can 

 have. That such a scheme can in any way advance 

 the real interests of botanical science would be 

 hard to prove. So far as the i)rospectus attempts 

 to set forth any such advantage, the only plea 

 made is for a " fuller exemplification of the geo- 

 graphical and geological distribution of British 

 plants." Surely Sowerby and Hooker and others 

 have given us information enough on this subject. 

 Mr. Blow says, "the use of such a society is 

 obvious." To this 1 would rejoin, that the abuse 

 of the facilities offered by such a society are far 

 more obvious. What would the inevitable result 

 be, but that in two or three years' time the choicest 

 rarities of our island flora would be " recorded" off 

 the face of the earth. Tlie growing fashion, or 

 passion, for collecting is yearly becoming a greater 

 evil. Real working botanists can always obtain 

 the information they require, a happy freemasonry 

 among them insuring that courteous interchange 

 of "hints" which they know will not be abused. 

 Some such protection is needed for the preserva- 

 tion of our rarer plants in these days of universal 

 inquisitorial Vandalism. For who are they that 

 will be first to profit by the publication of a list of 

 habitats? I answer, not botanists, properly so 

 called, — not bond fde students, but a far more 

 numerous posse of "amateur collectors" and 

 curiosity-mongers, who, with no reverence for the 

 sacredness of the species in its solitary haunt, will 

 assuredly watch their opportunity for transporting 

 in into their obscure herbaria, or, may be, trans- 

 planting it entire into their "rustic rockeries" at 

 home. The modern rage for fern-cultivation has 

 given rise to such a profitable "demand" for rare 

 species, that many localities, long famous for one or 

 another, are now stripped. 1 know of one gardener 

 who sent an agent to Killarney to secure all the 

 Trichomanes he could find ; another, who trans- 

 planted the whole of Mplenium septenirionale I'rom 



one of its best localities in Cumberland ; another, 

 at Scarborough, who pointed me with pride to a 

 large plot of Lastrea fosnisecii in his garden, with 

 the assurance that his "young man" had secured 

 all the plants in the once famed habitat for this 

 local species, so that he was now sole agent for it, 

 and would be most happy to sell me one for 

 eighteen pence. If botanists have the folly to 

 expose, Hezekiah-like, their treasures to the eyes 

 of such people, we shall no doubt soon have the 

 rapacious hordes of the Babylonians upon us. Tor 

 my part, I protest against opening the gates to the 

 invader.— .£■(?. Atkinson, F.L.S., F.Z.S. 



Poisonous Plants at Chester. — In your last 

 number, Eliz. Edwards asks the name of the plant 

 which was eaten by some boys from the Chester 

 Workhouse in the early part of last summer, and 

 caused the death of two of their number ! It was 

 (Enanthe crocata, but was erroneously described at 

 the inquest as Water Hemlock ; and one of our 

 local papers in reporting the case gave the scientific 

 name of that phmt, Cicuta virosa. (Enanthe crocata 

 grows very freely on tlie river-side where the boys 

 gathered it, and was mistaken by them for wild 

 celery, which grows in company with it. Six boys 

 ate of the tubei'ous roots ; two died within twenty- 

 four hours, and the other four, who had eaten very 

 little, recovered. Cicuta virosa is not to be found 

 in our neighbourhood. — /. I). S., Cliestcr. 



Forcing Pup^.— I think Mr. Anderson (Science- 

 Gossip, April, 1873, p. 93), must have been in too 

 great a hurry with his pupse, and subjected them to 

 too great a heat. I have sometimes tried forcing 

 them forward, and by carefully increasing the heat 

 by slow degrees each day, imitating as far as 

 possible the gradual advance of warm weather in 

 the spring of the year, have been fairly successful, 

 though I do not know that I got so many out as I 

 would have done by letting them alone. Once, 

 liowever, in my very early days, when even Pieris 

 hrassiccp. was worth breeding, I had a lot of pupae 

 of this species laid out on the mantel-piece of a 

 room where my breeding-cages, &c., were kept, and 

 where a fire was seldom lighted. They had lain 

 there some time, and one night about Christmas the 

 fire was lighted. It soon burnt up hot, heating the 

 stone shell above, and thinking it too warm for my 

 pupse, was about to remove them, when I noticed 

 the wing-markings shining through the pupa-case, 

 as they do just before the insect comes out. I 

 watched them, and in a few minutes one emerged, 

 and within two hours of the fire being lighted, 

 they were all out in fine condition. 1 knew too 

 little then to take notice of anything further than 

 the simple fact, but I have never seen a similar 

 thing since, though I have often tried with common 

 things.— /o//« E. Robson, Hartlepool. 



The Oldest Trees. — In answer to* a corre- 

 spondent who inquires whether any of your readers 

 can acquaint him as to which is the oldest tree in 

 Great Britain, I beg to send the following : — 

 So far as 1 have been able to learn, alter a good 

 deal of observation, the oldest tree now in this 

 island is an old oak tree about seven miles from Maiis- 

 field, in Nottinghamshire; it is within half a mile 

 of a large forest called Birkland, which is of v;ist 

 extent, and is the centre of the celebrated district 

 called the " Dukeries." The tree is now fast going 

 to decay, and unquestionably would long since have 

 succumbed to the force of the elements had it not 

 been for the extreme care taken of it by his Grace the 



