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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



pearance, still is unknown as to its development 

 and peculiarities. Many modes of exterminating it 

 from plants Lave been suggested, and some, no 

 doubt, have succeeded ; still, I think I can prescribe 

 a simple and effectual remedy, and one that, as far 

 as I can observe, will do no injury to the plant. My 

 mode of action is as follows :— Purchase at any 

 druggist's a square of carbolic soap, make a strong 

 lixivium of it with rain-water ; this should then be 

 put into a bowl or other suitable vessel; into this 

 submerge the buds or leaves of the plants infested 

 with the aphides. After a few applications of the 

 above the plant will be found to be freed of its de- 

 stroyers, and will probably never again have any 

 others on it. 



Ralph H. Westropp, A.B., T.C.D. 



THE NATURAL HISTORY OP LEICESTER. 

 SHIRE. 



rpHE following paper was recently read at the 



-■- Conversazione of the Diocesan Conference in 



the Leicester Museum, by P. T. Mott, P.R.G.S. -.— 



Let us consider the Natural History of our coun- 

 ty in its relation to that of Great Britain, and also 

 in its relations to the Natural History of the world. 

 No complete account of the animal and vegetable 

 life of Leicestershire appears ever to have been 

 published. Portions of the subject have been 

 treated in various works, and an attempt was made 

 to produce a complete county Pauna and Plora. 

 The manuscripts of the complete Plora, and of 

 several sections of the Pauna, all worked out by 

 such competent naturalists as the late Rev. W. H, 

 Coleman, Mr. James Plant, and others, still lie, I 

 believe, in the cabinets of their authors. 



I have found it impossible to obtain exact statis- 

 tics of the whole Pauna and Plora of the county ; 

 the following estimates, in round numbers, will, 

 however, give a general idea of the position occupied 

 by this small section of the earth's surface. 



The number of species, animal and vegetable 

 together, known to exist upon the earth at the 

 present time, cannot be less than 340,000 ; of these 

 there may be about 26,000 found in the British 

 islands ; and perhaps in this county as many as 

 6,000, that is to say, that Leicestershire contains 

 about one-fourth only of the species which are 

 found in all parts of Britain together, and only about 

 one-sixtieth of those which are known to exist in the 

 world. It is quite likely that the known species are 

 not more than one-half of those which really exist, 

 because the greater part of the earth's surface has 

 been very imperfectly searched, and the invertebrate 

 animals and cryptogamous plants, which enormously 

 outnumber the vertebrates and phanerogams, are 

 mostly small and inconspicuous, thousands of species 

 being entirely microscopic. Even among insects,— 



, often brilliant and striking objects, what still remains 

 to be discovered may be partly imagined by the fact, 

 that Mr, Henry Walter Bates, the Leicester 

 traveller, of whom the county should be proud, 

 sent home from the forests of Upper Brazil 8,000 

 species of insects entirely new to science. The real 

 proportion between the British species and those of 

 the whole world is rendered quite uncertain by the 

 knowledge that so much is yet unknown, and still 

 further, by the fact that no country in the world has 

 been so thoroughly searched as this little kingdom. 

 The probability is, therefore, that we greatly over- 

 estimate the relative importance of our local Pauna 

 and Plora, and that instead of representing one- 

 sixtieth of the total existing species, one-hundredth, 

 or even one-hundred-aud-fiftieth may be nearer to 

 the truth. 



Leaving out the vast domain of invertebrate 

 animals, in the lower divisions of which we can do 

 little more than guess at approximate numbers, and 

 confining ourselves to the vertebrates and the 

 plants, our statistics become more trustworthy. 



The distinct species of vertebrate animals 

 existing in the world probably do not much exceed 

 25,000. Of these about 700 are recorded as British, 

 and about 210 of them may be found in Leicester- 

 shire. Here we have our county Pauna represent- 

 ing one-hundred-and-twentieth of the world's total; 

 but as it is a well-recognized law of nature that the 

 more complex forms of life are more local, less 

 widely and generally distributed than the simpler 

 forms, we might expect that in any one locality the 

 proportion of vertebrates should be smaller than 

 the proportion of invertebrates, while yet the effect 

 of this law may quite possibly be counteracted by 

 the vastly greater 'number of the invertebrate 

 species. 



Of our 210 local vertebrates we find about 25 

 mammals, 150 birds, 10 reptiles, and 25 fishes ; and 

 it is a fact to be noted, that while our mammals and 

 our birds each represent about one-fiftieth of the 

 world's total, our reptiles areonlyone-two-hundredth, 

 and our fishes one-three-hundred-and-sixtieth. 

 The causes which affect the local distribution of 

 species are numerous, and some of them obscure, 

 but it is evident that the physical geography, the 

 geology, the climate, the number of human inhabi- 

 tants, and the degree in which the land is cultivated, 

 are among the most prominent of these causes. Dr. 

 Pulteney, in the introduction to his list of Leicester- 

 shire plants, published in Nichols's History, and 

 compiled about a century ago, speaks of tliis 

 county as comparatively rich in species, owing to 

 its varied soils and the existence within its borders 

 of Charnwood Porest. What indeed would Leicester- 

 shire be without its forest ? Our old Cliarnwood is 

 to the naturalist the central jewel of the county. 

 Without its influence our small vertebrate Pauna 

 would be reduced by at least twenty species, our 



