HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



131 



thickness have been piled up by the long-continued 

 action offerees at present in operation is called upon 

 to show the same producing like results at the 

 present time. And he does so. He shows us how 

 a continent is being lowered so many inches in a 

 century, and at what] rate a deposit is being formed ; 

 he points out evidence of the results produced by the 

 action of his forces within historic times. 



When we ask for evidence of the result of the bees' 

 selection at the present time, or within two thousand 

 years, the answer is, " More time is required." Is 

 this fair ? Has there not been time ? If the changes 

 are so minute, then an infinite length of time is 

 required to produce any considerable change ; it 

 requires an infinite series of infinitesimals to make 

 a. finite quantity. 



Anotlier answer perhaps is that the variations have 

 not been in the right direction. Such an assertion is, 

 •of course, unanswerable, and can be used on many 

 ■occasions. Yet one upholder of the bee-selection 

 theory requires nothing more for the development 

 of blue than that the flowers should acquire a blue 

 tinge, "as all the upper parts of highly-developed 

 plants are apt to do." And it may be suggested as 

 curious that bees should so perseveringly visit flowers 

 not varying in the right direction, while others have 

 — according to the theory — varied abundantly in the 

 \vay of blueness and complexity. 



The willow has likewise an important bearing on 

 Mr. Henslow's theory of the development of flowers 

 by the direct stimulus of insect action.* Mr. Hen- 

 slow considers the willow an anemophilous plant ; 

 and he believes such to arise through the neglect 

 of insects : 



"With regard to the origin of anemophilous 

 flowers, there is every reason to believe them to be 

 due to the neglect or absence of insects ; that as 

 these have brought about brilliant colours or other 

 kinds of conspicuousness, so their absence has allowed 

 flowers to degenerate and become inconspicuous, the 

 result being either self- fertilisation or anemophily." f 



And yet it would be diflicult perhaps to name 

 ^ plant much more frequented by bees than the 

 willow. 



" Behold ! yon bordering fence of sallow trees 

 Is fraught with flowers, the flowers fraught with bees." 



THE CHINESE INSECT WHITE WAX. 



INSECTS are important factorsin natural economy. 

 Every one has heard of the cochineal, so long 

 utilised as crimson dye ; and Mr. A. Hosie recently 

 supplied another illustration of the commercial value 

 of insects, in an interesting address on Chinese Insect 

 White Wax. This is most extensively manufactured 



* See "Floral Structures." International Scientific Series, 

 vol. Ixiv. I 

 t " Floral Structures," p. 270. ^ 



at Chien-Ch'ang, a province in Western China, which 

 is the principal habitat of the insect-producing tree, 

 known by the Chinese as " ch'ung-shu." In the east 

 of the province, the tree, which is an evergreen, with 

 opaque, glossy, dark-green leaves, of an ovated and 

 pointed shape, springing from the branches in pairs, 

 is known by the name of " pao-ke-tsao," or crackling 

 tree, from the noise it makes when burning. Late in 

 May, or at the beginning of June, the tree puts forth 

 clusters of tiny white blossoms, which, later in the 

 season, give place to dark, bluish seeds. The chief 

 insect-producing country is Chien-Ch'ang Valley, but 

 by cultivating the insect-tree, and placing upon them 

 insect-galls, these curious wax-producers may be 

 propagated in other districts, although they deteri- 

 orate in quality. In Chia-ting the insects are divided 

 into two classes — "la-sha," wax-sand, reddish-white 

 in colour, highly prized as wax -producers ; and 

 " huang-sha," yellow, or brown sand, considered 

 useless. 



As early as March, the galls, or insect-seed cases, 

 brownish excrescences resembling peas in shape, may 

 be seen, adhering to the twigs and bark of the tree. 

 When opened, these cases are found to contain an 

 aggregation of minute whitish-brown animalculae, 

 each possessing six legs, and a pair of club antennas. 

 Enclosed within most of the galls is a cocoon, con- 

 taining a chrysalis, the movements of which are 

 discernible through its delicate covering, whence 

 emerges a tiny black beetle, having six legs, and 

 being armed with a long proboscis, which terminates 

 in a pair of pincers. This beetle, known by the 

 Chinese as niu-erh, or "buffalo," is accused by them 

 of devouring, or injuring, the wax-insects, but Mr. 

 Hosie thinks this is open to doubt. He carried home 

 with him several of the galls, containing minute 

 cocoons ; and as each, in the course of a few days, 

 developed the maligned beetle, whose habits he care- 

 fully watched, he found that if left undisturbed within 

 the gall the "buffalo" — probably so named on 

 account of his ungainly " personality "—continued to 

 burrow, by aid of his proboscis, into the inner lining 

 of the seed-case, which he tore with his pincers, and 

 from which he apparently derived sustenance, heed- 

 less of the hurrying crowd of busy insects, which 

 travelled about iu all directions, apparently un- 

 molested. He believes that the " buff'alo " effects a 

 wise purpose in natural economy by boring an orifice 

 in the case, and thus enabling his tiny companions to 

 effect their escape on to the wax-tree. 



When the galls are plucked, an orifice is disclosed, 

 by which they are attached to the tree ; and on a 

 number of these cases being gathered and carefully 

 examined, the pincers of the beetle were seen to 

 pierce a circular hole, which gradually became suffi- 

 ciently large to admit of his escape. He however 

 did not emerge thence immediately, but continued to 

 burrow in the inner lining of the case, and the wax 

 insects instantaneously commenced to crawl out and 



