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HARJDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



bloom on a waste piece of ground, very grimy from 

 soot and other refuse, not many yards from London 

 Bridge, in Tooley Street. This is certainly remark- 

 able considering the surroundings, as since the time 

 of Gerarde not many wild flowers, I will vouchsafe, 

 have found existence possible in this neighbourhood. 

 Gerarde mentions the enchanter's nightshade as grow- 

 ing in a ditch side, against the Earl of Sussex's 

 garden wall in Barnaby (Bermondsey Street), by 

 London, " as you go from the court, which is full of 

 trees, unto a farmhouse close unto." In this ditch 

 likewise the water crowfoot [Ranunailus aquatilis), 

 with its beautiful white flowers, and willow herb 

 (epilobium) or cherry pie, as the country folks call it, 

 and likewise the horsetail (equisetum) flourished. 

 We cannot now boast of courts or farmhouses with 

 trees in Tooley Street or neighbourhood, lint we can 

 certainly boast of an avenue of young planes leading 

 from the top of Bermondsey Street to Dockhead. 

 These trees are doing exceedingly well, and no 

 doubt, judging from the care bestowed on them by 

 the parochial authorities, will make fine specimens in 

 a few years' time. — yohn Waller, Brockley. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Helix nemoralis. Reversed Form. — For some 

 years past I have received consignments of this re- 

 markable shell from a poor family in County Donegal. 

 The shells are found on the sand-hills in tlie neigh- 

 bourhood of Ballyshannon. Jeffreys notes that "they 

 sometimes occur, but are very rare." Though the 

 normal form is in profusion, the result of an entire 

 year's gathering of this family of sharp-eyed young 

 people only amounts to about two dozen of the 

 crooked shells, as they term them ; and on the 

 approach of spring I usually receive a small box by 

 post containing the little horde, with the modest 

 request that I will send what I can for them. Being 

 overstocked, I would be glad to dispose of a few 

 dozen for the benefit of the poor collectors, and 

 doubtless many of your readers would be glad to 

 avail themselves of the opportunity of thus securing 

 specimens. I should note that, as the shells are 

 collected in hollows among the sand-hills, they are 

 "dead shells," and usually much bleached. — Wm, 

 Siuanston, 4A Cliftonvillc Avemte, Belfast. 



Embedded Batrachians. — At the Paris Ex- 

 hibition of 1878 I saw a toad which was supposed to 

 have existed alive in a solid Ijlock of coal since, of 

 course, the formation of the beds from which the 

 block was obtained. By Mr. Gresley's interesting 

 table we see that such tales are by no means rare. 

 Only recently an article appeared in a London daily 

 paper on a toad lately found in the boulder clay. 

 Let us consider a well-known case : — Some years 

 ago the manager of the Shielduir Pit, near Mother- 

 well, Airdrie, N.B., "while superintending the driving 

 of a mine through sandstone, was surprised to find 

 from thirty to forty live frogs issue from the centre of 

 a mass of stone that had been dislodged." The 

 depth at which this frog-bearing block was found 

 was 330 feet below the surface. Now, if this be a 

 fact, we must conclude that these frogs were living in 



the water in which the sandstone was originally de- 

 posited (probably during the Carboniferous Period), 

 and furthermore, that they were able effectually to 

 survive the pressure and chemical changes which 

 subsequently hardened the sediment into sandstone ! 

 Poor creatures ! how unhappy they must have been 

 for some thousands of years ! It would be only 

 reasonable of those who believe so far in the vitality 

 of these batrachians to expect some day to unearth a 

 living fossil in the shape of an Archegosaurus or 

 other amphibian of the past ! When frogs or toads 

 are found "embedded" at great depths below the 

 surface, there is little doubt but that they have either 

 crept down, or been washed down, some fissure 

 which may have been subsequently filled up, and, 

 under certain conditions, its contents consolidated. 

 In cold weather frogs and toads creep into holes and 

 fissures to pass the winter in a benumbed state ; in 

 this condition they require little air and no food. 

 Winter rains may then fill up the fissure, and at the 

 same time wash the creatures lower down ; here they 

 might exist for a considerable time before being 

 unearthed by miners or others. — Cecil Canis-lVilson. 



Sheep Ticks. — Can you kindly inform me, through 

 the medium of " our " paper, how the sheep tick 

 multiplies in such numbers, as I find in Staveley's 

 "British Insects," p. 372, as follows: — "An un- 

 usual circumstance occurs in this family, the female 

 giving birth to but one individual, and that not until 

 it has either already attained the last stage of larva- 

 hood, or has become a pupa." Of course, if they 

 give birth to but one individual, the line would very 

 soon die out from accident or natural causes. — Alfred 

 Draper. 



Hertfordshire Natural History Society. — 

 I am anxious to form collections of Hertfordshire 

 shells, insects, etc., for the museum of the above 

 society. Can any reader of Science-Gossip help 

 me ? Specimens of even the commonest shells and 

 insects will be welcomed, as at present the society 

 does not possess either entomological or conchological 

 collections, and an endeavour is being made to add 

 these to the museum. We have a fine collection of 

 county plants, the herbaria of Messrs. Webb, Coleman 

 and Pryor, authors of the County Floras, being in 

 possession of the society. I shall be pleased, however, 

 to add to these, specimens of rare plants, both 

 phajnerogams and cryptogams. It is important that 

 a note of the exact locality and date of collection 

 should be attached to every object. Specimens 

 should be sent to me at "The Hollies," S. Albans. — 

 A. E. Gibbs, Hon. Curator. 



Clutches of Bird's Eggs. — I was very much 

 concerned to see in the exchange column of this 

 month's SciENCE-GossiP no fewer than three ad- 

 vertisements for entire clutches of birds' eggs. I 

 hope you will not lend the pages of Scien'ce-Gossip 

 to this nefarious business. Pray let these gentry 

 know plainly that their business is too disreputable 

 to find any encouragement from a journal which is 

 devoted to and circulated amongst ' ' Lovers of 

 Nature," and not wholesale exterminators of her 

 treasures. — A Subscriber to SciENCE-GossiP/ww the 

 beginning. 



Vandal Naturalists. — As a collector of birds' 

 eggs in clutch, I have no objection to being called a 

 Vandal Naturalist. Nevertheless, I think the epithet 

 more appropriate to those who get a miscellaneous 

 lot of specimens together, and call them a collection. 

 Such collections serve no purpose in showing what 



