HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCR- G O SSIP, 



213 



Williams comes with further proof of difference in 



his Helices. H. nenioralis 00345 is interesting, but 



the array of band varieties of H. Jiortejisis v. pallida 



is quite astonishing. I have never seen pallida other 



than bandless, and if these are the genuine pallida 



they are very curious indeed. One of them, (23)45, 



is a previously unrecorded band-formula. I collected 



H. nenioralis and H. horteiisis in 18S3 in the same 



locality that Mr, Williams found his, as nearly as can 



be judged, but I missed his pallida forms. This, 



however, is not strange, as I know how frequently 



remarkable varieties of H. hortensis are confined to 



limited spots — perhaps a single hedgerow. This 



is very notably the case about Chislehurst. I have 



note of eighty-six different band-varieties of H. 



nenioralis, and forty-nine of If. horlensis, as found in 



Britain. Some of them have not yet been published. 



It would be interesting if some one would collect a 



large number of the North London Pabidina fasciata 



(vivipara, Auctt.). Some of the forms approach 



contecta closely in shape, such being apparently the 



var. inflata of Locard. I believe Mr. Wilcock has 



found the same variety in the Barnsley Canal at 



Agbrigg.— Z: D. A. Cockerell, West Cliff, Custer 



Co., Colorado. 



The Darts of the Helicid,^. — Some words of 

 mine are needed in reference to Mr. Hart's note on 

 p. 186 ante. If my note be referred to, it will be 

 seen that I stated in my opinion the mention given 

 by Mr, Standen of a crystalline stylet being found in 

 the stomach of some snails (or, if you like, slugs, 

 which also are Gastropods) in *' Life-lore " was not 

 quite correct. I thought that he had made a clerical 

 error. And let it be understood that I do not under- 

 value Mr. Standen's accuracy in any way. But 

 I may mention that I would rather have heard 

 from Mr. Standen than have received a reply at 

 second-hand. If I at any time am in error, I am 

 always willing to correct that error and to acknow- 

 ledge the fact. I, however, am not aware of any 

 record, either English or continental, of a crj'stalline 

 stylet being found in the stomach of a Gastropod. I 

 asked for references : these have not been given. 

 But these I should wish to be satisfied. And I may 

 mention that in no morphological text-book — I have 

 all of them on my shelves — does a mention occur of 

 any crystalline stylet being found in the Mollusca, 

 except in the Unionacea.— y. W. Willianis. 



Natural History and Scientific Societies. 

 — "The Proceedings of the Bristol Naturalists' 

 Society" contains the following"^ papers : "The Geo- 

 logy of Tytherington and Grovesend," by Prof. C. 

 Lloyd Morgan ; "Notes Supplemental to the Flora 

 of the Bristol Coalfield," by J, W, White; "The 

 Fungi of the Bristol District," Part xi., by C. Buck- 

 nail ; "A Few Notes on Heliothis Scutosa," by W. 

 K, Mann ; " Trigonocephalus Lanceolatus," Notes 



on the West Indian " Fer-de-Lance," by Dr. Wm. 

 Duncan ; " Talpa ; or Remarks on the Habits of the 

 Mole," by C. J. Trusted ; "On Mr. Mellard Reade's 

 Work on Mountain Building," l^y Rev. M. B. 

 Saunders ; " Do Snakes Fascinate their Victims ? " 

 by Dr. A. J. Harrison ; " Mimicry amongst the 

 Lepidoptera," by G. C. Griffiths; "On Putrefactive 

 Organisms," by Rev. W. H. Dallinger ; " Suggestions 

 as to the Causes of the Difference in Colour between 

 the Flowers and Foliage of Tropical and of Temperate 

 Regions," by C. Jecks ; " Voice, Language, Phonetic 

 Spelling," by Dr. A. B. Prowse, &c. 



The Report and Transactions of the Penzance 

 Natural History and Antiquarian Society contains the 

 following : " Our Common Garden Snails and their 

 Variations," by E. D. Marquand ; " On the Occur- 

 rence of Foreign Plants in West Cornwall," by W. 

 A. Glasson ; " Birds' Nesting in Scilly," by Rev. R. 

 W. J. Smart, &c. 



BOTANY. 



Trop^OLUM MAJUS is a plant which may be seen 

 by anybody, and deserves to be studied with more 

 attention than has been given to it. I suspect that 

 professional teachers of science shrink from saying 

 much about it, lest any of their pupils might ask them 

 how it was that a plant whose flowers are so 

 obviously perigynous came to be associated by 

 writers on systematic botany with such Thalamifloral 

 Exogens as malva and geranium ? That is a 

 question which I wish that somebody would answer 

 in the pages of Science-Gossip. I will now turn to 

 another : the development of irregular forms in 

 flowers. Botanists who lived before Darwin, looking 

 on the irregularities of umbelliferous, papilionaceous, 

 and labiate flowers in which the posterior organs are 

 reduced in size or suppressed, thinking more of 

 abortion than of development, ascribed the irregu- 

 larities observed in such flowers to pressure or to 

 want of space for their full growth. This con- 

 sideration seemed to account for the want of a fifth 

 stamen in didynamous flowers, for the suppression of 

 all but the anterior carpel in Leguminosas, as well as 

 for the difference in size between the posterior and 

 anterior portions of a flower, the anterior petals being 

 commonly larger than the posterior. The keel of a 

 papilionaceous or the lip of a labiate flower might 

 indeed be a convenient landing-place for insects ; but 

 we need not invoke them to account for its existence. 

 Tropseolum seems to laugh at such considerations. 

 Instead of yielding to pressure which apparently for- 

 bids the formation of a free spur in pelargonium, 

 whose clustered flowers are baffled in the attempt, 

 Tropseolum seems to kick against the axis, which in 

 return drives away the flower by increasing the 

 length of its pedicel, so as to give room for the long 



