200 



HARDWICKE'S SC 1 ENC E-G OS S I P. 



from the glacial deposits of Uddevalla Las been 

 found nearly 4 inches in height. The handsome 

 genus Coronula, of which there are three recent and 

 one fossil species known, is remarkable not only 

 for its beauty, but for the habitat chosen by its 



Fig. 126. Balanus Hameri, 



members-; fh«y are found attached to the epidermis 

 of the whale. Coronula diadema (fig. 127) is found 

 on the whales inhabiting the northern seas. Some- 

 times it attains a very large size, and Mr. Darwin 

 mentions one 2i in. in diameter and 2 in. high. 



"Fig. 127. Coronvla diitdema. 



' After wading through the mass of absurdities, 

 -of which I have given you, I fear, more than 

 enough, it is"" perfectly refreshing to turn to the 

 ■ records of modern research, and follow Mr. Vaughau 

 Thompson in his delicate and patient observations, by 

 means of which he was enabled to trace the small 

 traiiislucent animal t'o of an inch long, he found in 

 his muslin towing-net, through changes wliich 

 ^established the identity of the free-swimming stalk- 

 «yed crustacean with the Balanus found attached to 

 the rocks, stones, and shells of the sea-shore. With 

 regard to the bird to which such a wonderful 

 origin has been assigned, the Baniacle Goose, I need 

 say, very little. It is a well-known winter migrant 

 on the east coast ; its summer home, where it breeds, 

 being the high latitudes of Northern Europe : it 



is a very handsome species, and, being a vegetable- 

 feeder, excellent eating, — a point, and almost the only 

 one, regarding it on which we can agree with its 

 early historians. 



It will be observed that the learned author of the 

 " English Physician " does not hesitate for a 

 moment to admit that "the greatest part of insects 

 and some other creatures, as frogs, &c., are spon- 

 taneously bred," although they " do afterwards 

 couple and generate " ; and even Ray, in his edition 

 of Willoughby, published so late as 1678, though 

 he denies to any bird an " equivocal or spontaneous 

 generation," does not offer any objection to that 

 theory with regard to " lesser and more imperfect " 

 animals, such as frogs and insects. In the present 

 day we have advanced a step farther, and repudiate 

 the idea of even frogs and insects springing into 

 life gendered of scum or putrefaction. It is evident, 

 therefore, that the field still left for the exercise of 

 this unconstitutional mode of coming into the 

 world is small indeed, in fact no other than the 

 field of the microscope. Judging from what has come 

 before, is it not probable that when the minute 

 organisms, so difiicult to study, are better known, 

 even this last scarcely tenable hold of the old 

 superstition will be cleared away, and that the same 

 law of nature which governs the increase of every 

 organism with which we are thoroughly acquainted — 

 like producing like — will be proved to pervade the 

 whole universe ; and as there is now nothing too 

 great, so nothing will be found too small to be 

 subject to it ! T. S. 



THE WINFARTHING OAK. 



THE discussion in the late numbers of this 

 Magazine concerning the old trees of Britain 

 induced me to pay a visit to my venerable neigh- 

 bour the Winfarthing Oak, whom I had not seen 

 for just a quarter of a century. The sketch that 

 I took of him on that occasion bears date, I see, 

 November 10th, 1848, and I am happy to report 

 that on my recent visit (July 25th) he seemed to me 

 fully as vigorous as then ; one large arm being well 

 clothed with leaf, and giving promise of fruit. 

 Indeed, it struck me that his appearance had rather 

 improved than otherwise. Now the age of this 

 tree has been estimated by such authorities as 

 Loudon and others to be 1,500 years. It is said to 

 have been called the " old oak " at the time of the 

 Conquest; and although the correctness of this 

 assertion has not, I believe, been substantiated by 

 any modern observer, it is pretty certain that it 

 was an old oak, and a very old oak too, at that 

 time, and the fact of its having been so called may 

 rest upon its having served to mark some Saxon 

 boundary. 



But I wish to show iiow little impression the 



