142 



HAEDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



They require a great deal of extra attention to pre- 

 serve them for even a time, and unless given a 

 ehauge of air, very speedily droop aud die. Cut 

 flov^^ers in water are almost worse to preserve, the 

 water becomes heated and causes the stems to decay 

 rapidly : so, to make them last for a few days, it is 

 necessary to change the Avater before leaving them 

 at night, and I find a very good plan is to put 

 tliem in a dark cellar till morning. Gas stoves are 

 considered very injurious in hothouses ; in fact, if 

 tliey are used, they are generally placed outside the 

 hothouses, and hot-air or water-pipes introduced. — 

 Barbara Wallace Fyfe. 



How TO Stock a Pond. — I know that the Hon. 

 Grantley P. Berkeley, of Alderney Manor, Poole, 

 Dorcet, had a new river made in his estate and 

 stocked it with (ish from ova. I saw some of the 

 beds prepared for trout ova, and they came on 

 beautifully and most successfully. 1 dare say if 

 " P. C." will write to Mr. Berkeley, he will give 

 him the information he requires. — Barbara Wallace 

 Fyfe. 



Sea-Eagles. — It is most probable that the 

 eagles killed in Somersetshire were immature 

 Sea-Eagles.— G^. 



SurrosED Paeasite of Elm. — The parasite on 

 Elm figured in the last number of Science- 

 Gossip is the common Dog-tick {Ixodes vicinus), 

 which is found in all sorts of unusual situations ; in 

 fact, anywhere, and only attaches itself to the dog 

 when it happens to meet with one. I have fre- 

 quently found it among grass in sweeping for small 

 diptera.— ^. Capron, M.D. 



Local Ploras.— Referring to a suggestion in 

 Science-Gossip (page 163, July, 1S71), concerning 

 Local Ploras, I would advise botanists, entomo- 

 logists, geologists, and " ists " in general, who con- 

 template a visit to the Isle of Wight, to procure 

 Venables's guide, published by Stanford, Charing 

 Cross (price, I think, G^.). I may safely affirm that lie 

 who has once made this book his companion when 

 on the island will not be likely to repeat his visit 

 without it. Allow me to suggest that naturalists, 

 when they visit any locality and come across any 

 really useful guide to the botany, &c., of the place, 

 should let the same be known for the benefit of 

 brother naturalists.— i/. R. Warrington. 



South London Entomological' Society, 

 26 and 28, Newington Causeway, S.E. — Meetings 

 held on Wednesdays at 8 p.m. Objects— formation 

 of a library and diffusion of entomological science 

 by means of papers aud exhibitions. Subscription, 

 (Sd. per month. New members are invited. — 

 Treasurer {pro fern.), Mr. J. G. Marsh, 842, Old 

 Kent Poad. Hon. Secretary, to whom all com- 

 munications should be addressed, Mr. J. P. Barrett, 

 33, lladnor Street, Peckham, S.E. 



Endromis versicolor (page 115). — In answer 

 to Mr. Gascoyne, I beg to inform him that the state- 

 ment as to this species being a web-weaver was 

 made not from my own experience — which would 

 incline me to ilr. Gascoyne's way of thinking, — but 

 from an observation of Newman, who informs us, at 

 page 47 of " British Moths," that " the caterpillars 

 come out about the 1st of May. At first they are 

 gregarious, spinning a web over the twig, and. 

 attaching themselves by their claspers." In my 

 own collecting experience I have only once been 

 able to obtain the larvae, and then, like Mr. Gas- 



coyne, did iiot observe any attempt at web-weaving. 

 I imagined at the time that this arose from my 

 having reared them from the egg, and the conse- 

 quent cessation of a necessity for external defence. 



— Charles Lovekin. 



Shamrock. — An Irish lady tells me that " the 

 true Shamrock is the Trifolium repens, and sham- 

 rock is the Irish name lor this plant." I always 

 thought the Trifolium repens was the clover known 

 generally as "Dutch clover," and this lady's de- 

 finition of the Shamrock confirms it ; for an Irish 

 gentleman brought me, last summer, a root of tJie 

 Shamrock, and 1 exclaimed on seeing it, " How 

 like the Dutch clover we used to sow on the upper 

 fields at home." The Arabic for trefoil, strange to 

 say, is Shanirakh, and the same plant was held 

 sacred by the Persians in Iran, as emblematical of 

 their Triads. Then, again, readers of Pliny's works 

 will remember that he says "serpents ai'e never seen 

 on trefoil, and it prevails against the stings of 

 snakes and scorpions." There seems somewhat of 

 a coincidence between this and St. Patrick's miracle 

 of the reptiles ; but, alas ! for Pliny's veracity, I saw 

 a snake last year on some trefoil. — H. E. Watney. 



The True Shamrock (p. 113). — ^The etymology 

 of this word is clearly from the native Irish, viz. : 

 seamrog, i.e., trefoil, the tliree-leaved wild clover. 

 The prefix seam is to all intents and purposes our 

 word "charm," phonetically altered. The "s" 

 has the power of " sh," and the word is allied to 

 seun, "an amulet ;" cf. the Welsh sicyn, "magic." 

 Trifolium repens, known as white or Dutch clover, 

 is the native Shamrock of Ireland ; although some, 

 mistakenly, claim the name for Oxalis acetosella, the 

 common Wood Sorrel; but that in Irish is seamsog. 

 It is usual now to show fancy or cultivated trefoils 

 as the true Shamrock ; but it could scarcely have 

 been so in St. Patrick's day. The real poetical 

 charm, however, clings to the four-leaved Shamrock. 

 —A. H. 



Are Plants injured by Gas and Gaslight ?— 

 The presence of gas in a room would most certainly 

 be very injurious to the well-doing of plants grown 

 in that room. Plants, like human beings, require a 

 season of rest. They sleep in the dark ; therefore to 

 keep them constantly under the influence of light 

 would weaken them, and eventually destroy them. 

 In this way gaslight kills them. There is, we all 

 know, a very close resemblance in the functions of 

 animals and leaves. The air inhaled by animals pro- 

 ceeds to the lungs, and acts on the blood. The air 

 inhaled by plants, through tlieir foliage, acts upon 

 the sap. Oxygen aud carbonic acid gas combined 

 form the air essential to the health of plants, and as 

 we in sleep exhale less carbonic acid than in our 

 waking hours, plants give out a diminished quantity 

 of oxygen during the night ; but an over-amount of 

 carbonic acid in the air will destroy plants. It is a 

 singular fact that nearly every flower requires a 

 particular degree of light for its full expansion. . I 

 have been trying some experiments during this last 

 year with respect to the effect of light on plants, 

 but have only proved what was well known before ; 

 still the chemistry of botany is a most interesting 

 study, and 1 wish some of tlie readers of Science- 

 Gossip would kindly recommend me a good work 

 on it. — Helen E. Watney. 



Phosphorescence. — What is the correct expla- 

 nation of the luminosity of two pieces of loaf-sugar 

 rubbed together in the dark ? Is it electric or phos- 

 phoric light ?—R. II. Nisbett Browne. 



