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HA RD WICKE'S SCIENCE- G OSS I P. 



distinct spur of tlie upper sepal. For this distinct 

 spur in such a position, it is impossible to account 

 without reference to insect visitors. As a matter 

 of description, I call the flower-stalk a pedicel 

 rather than a peduncle, because it never bears more 

 than one llower, and because it has no bracteoles 

 upon its sides, like those of convolvulus or viola. 

 The presence of such bracteoles, however small, is 

 of more importance in tracing natural affinity than 

 any increase or diminution of size. Convolvulus 

 tricolor (the minor convolvulus of suburban gardens) 

 has solitary flowers each on a stalk with two small 

 bracteoles, but these diminutive organs indicate 

 affinity with Ipomcea, whose flower-stalk, a true 

 peduncle, bears three or more flowers in an axillary 

 cyme with centrifugal order of expansion. — Jolui 

 Gibbs. 



Pollen of Caladium. — Is it generally known 

 that the pollen of the cultivated varieties of Caladium 

 contains free crystals scattered amongst the pollen- 

 grains? The pollen is extruded in ropy masses 

 from between the anthers which compose the spadix. 

 I enclose enlarged drawings of [a] a mass of pollen 

 showing crystals in situ ; (/A crystals more highly 

 magnified. I should be much obliged if any of your 

 readers could tell me the probable components of 

 these crystals. I have been unable to find any 

 crystals in the pollen of the common Arum lily, and 

 in several other plants of the same natural order. I 

 may mention that the Caladium is very suitable for 

 demonstrating the growth of the pollen-tubes, which 

 are very readily thrown out if the pollen be left for a 

 few hours on a damp slide. — E. Ernest Green, 

 Pundiiloya, Ceylon. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A Rook on Trial. — The Rev. Mr. Frizelle, of 

 Bushmills, narrates that he witnessed a trial of a 

 rook by his comrades for the act of stealing sticks 

 from other nests. The other rooks assembled round the 

 culprit and cawed for a considerable time, when the 

 unfortunate bird was condemned to suffer the penalty, 

 and he was then and there set upon and pecked to 

 death. Two magpies were present, who appeared 

 seemingly as witnesses. — Rev. S. A. Brenan, Glendun 

 Lodge, Ciishcnden. 



Ants and Aphides. — Watching, a few days 

 since, the black aphides which covered the young 

 shoots of the broad bean, I noticed the rapid move- 

 ments of a garden ant. This insect was inoving 

 (juickly from one aphis to another, gently touching 

 their bodies with the tips of its antennae. Sometimes 

 there was no response to this tickling, and the ant 

 passed to another ; but when some of the aphides 

 were touched in this manner, they exuded a drop of 

 colourless liquid from the anal orifice. I noticed 

 this repeatedly, and mention it because I do not 

 remember to have read of it. Writers say the aphis 

 milk is obtained by ants from the teat-like organs 

 which project from the upper part of the abdomen. 

 The insects observed had these projections apparently 



fully formed ; but the honeydew certainly did not 

 come from their teats, but from the end of the body. 

 ~W.E. G., Bristol. 



Tpie Mammoth not extinct. — The "Saturday 

 Journal" of June agtb, 1889, says:— "Mr. C. F. 

 Fowler, who has been living in Central Alaska for 

 two years, reports a discovery which deserves to rank 

 among the most interesting discoveries of modern 

 times. The mammoth, otherwise the Ekphas prinii- 

 genius, which zoologists have hitherto supposed to be 

 extinct, still exists in the neighbourhood of the upper 

 waters of the Snake River. Mr. Fowler did not 

 actually see the monsters, but he saw and interviewed 

 a man who had killed two of them ; and, what is 

 more, he obtained the animals' tusks, to which some 

 partly decomposed flesh was still adhering. The 

 largest is 15 feet long, and weighs over 250 pounds. 

 The animals are described as being about 20 feet 

 high and 30 feet long, with smaller ears, bigger 

 eyes, and longer trunk than an elephant, and with 

 two large and four smaller tusks. Their bodies are 

 covered with coarse reddish hair. Large herds of 

 the beasts are said to survive on the unexplored 

 highlands of the interior. The story is not by any 

 means improbable. Much mammoth ivory has of 

 late years been exported from Alaska, and, as recently 

 as 1799, an entire mammoth, whose flesh was still so 

 fresh that it could be eaten by dogs, was disentombed 

 from the ice at the mouth of the river Lena. It is 

 clear, therefore, that even if the mammoth be extinct, 

 it has not, in the zoological and geological senses of 

 the words, been extinct for long. Upon the whole, 

 there seems to be a very good chance that we may 

 yet see a living mammoth in the Zoological Gardens 

 in Regent's Park, and that we may have the pleasure 

 of feeding it with buns." If an entire mammoth was 

 found in 1799, and disentombed in 1804, it is ex- 

 tremely probable that the ivory which has come from 

 Alaska of late years has also been disentombed. 

 The flesh of the 1S04 mammoth was eaten by dogs, 

 and because the flesh of the 1889 mammoth is partly 

 decomposed, I fail to see in what manner it helps to 

 prove that the animal is still extant. I am afraid 

 some one has been playing with the credulity of 

 Mr. C. F. Fowler. The skeleton and skin of the 

 1799 mammoth are preserved in the museum of the 

 Academy in St. Petersburg. In Siberia, immense 

 numbers of remains are siill found ; the tusks are 

 collected and held in high estimation. They form 

 the principal material on which the Russian ivory- 

 turners work. The Tungusian chief who discovered 

 the 1799 mammoth sold the tusks for fifty roubles 

 (not quite £'& sterling), and according to his assertion, 

 the animal was a male, so fat and well fed that its 

 belly hung down below its knees. " We cannot 

 doubt, after such testimony " (says Louis Figuier in 

 "The World before the Deluge"), " of the existence 

 in the frozen North of the almost entire remains of 

 the mammoth. The animals seem to have perished 

 suddenly ; seized by the ice at the moment of their 

 death, their bodies have been preserved from de- 

 composition by the continual action of the cold. If 

 we suppose that one of these animals had sunk into 

 a marsh which froze soon afterwards, or had fallen 

 accidentally into the crevices of some glacier, it 

 would be easy for us to understand how its body, 

 buried immediately under eternal ice, had remained 

 there for thousands of years without undergoing 

 decomposition." — Geo. Ed. Seville, Cross Bank, 

 IVaterhead, Oldham. 



Fren'ch Bird-Murder. — Any one who takes a 

 walk abroad in the rural parts of France, when 



