80 



HARDWICKE'S S CIEN C E-GO SSIP. 



coagulates it ; then run through a colander and 

 wash the curds with cold water, so that no sour 

 taste is left. I have often used with good effect the 

 Nightingale's staple food ; viz., equal parts of very 

 finely-minced beef and yolk of hard-boiled egg well 

 mixed together and nicely chopped into small 

 pieces : this some blackcaps are very fond of, 

 whilst I have noticed others would not touch it. 

 Give them fruit in their season ; such as ripe elder- 

 berries, soft pears, roast apple, &c., as in their wild 

 state they begin with the ivy-berries on their arrival 

 in April, and depart in September, after regaling 

 themselves on the Jargonelle pear. I would parti- 

 cularly advise a constant change of food : never 

 keep to one thing, and there will be very few deaths 

 to record. I find it best in winter to turn all the 

 blackeai>s together into a large cage, and along 

 with them any other warblers I may happen to have : 

 they are thus warmer and more comfortable, and a 

 large cage gives room for giving them a much 

 larger assortment of food, which may be arranged 

 in small hang-up tins all over the cage near the 

 perches. A blackcap's cage should only be wired 

 in front, and the perches should be covered with 

 green baize. Another advantage attends keeping 

 all the birds together in winter: by seeing each 

 other eat different foods, it is astonishing how they 

 get used to eating food which, if alone, tiiey would 

 not touch. I have known nightingales which 

 would eat nothing but beef and egg, in this manner, 

 by the society of blackcaps and garden warblers, 

 lake to feeding on ail the above-mentioned foods. 

 Kendal. J. S. Metcalfe. 



ON THE ERUIT OF THE CALAMITE. 



rpHE readers of Science-Gossip will remember 

 -*- I promised, at the close of my article on the 

 Calamite, in the September number, 1871, that I 

 would send short descriptions of some of the known 

 plants and fruits of our coal-measures : I shall now 

 try to describe the supposed fruit of the Calamite. 

 I say "supposed" because I have reason to doubt 

 that it is the fruit of the Calamite proper, although 

 it is held to be such by Binney, Carruthers, and 

 others : my reason for expressing this doubt I will 

 explain further on. 



This fruit is known as VoJkmannla Blnneyi, and 

 is a strobilus : these strobili arc found attached in 

 whorls to the nodes of the plant (o which they be- 

 longed. (Sec Mr. Carruthers' Lecture "On the 

 Cryptogamic Eorests of tiie Coal Period," delivered 

 at the Royal Institution of Great Britain, April IG, 

 18G9; also Mr. Binney's Monograph, published 

 by the Palajontographical Society, plate G, fig. 1.) 



Those who arc conversant with the structure of 

 the fruit of the common "horse-tail" of the present 

 day will see a family likeness between it and the 



fruit we have now under notice. Yet there is a 

 marked difference between them ; for while the for- 

 mer is terminal at the top of the plant, the latter 

 was produced in the whorls at the nodes "or joints 

 of the stem or branches. Again, while the former 

 shields its sporangia by simple peltate scales, the 

 latter are protected by additional scales or bracts 

 that pass between the peltate scales and then ascend 

 the outside of the fruit, as seen sketched in fig. 56, a. 



Fig-. 56. Vertical section of Fruit of Calamite. 



The sporangia are produced from the underside of 

 the peltate scales, as in fig. 5G, h. There are six of 

 these sporangia-bearing scales in each whorl, and 

 double that ^number of protecting scales outside 

 them. The central axis or pith of this fruit is of a 

 vascular nature, and the walls of the vessels are 

 barred with transverse stria;. The centre of the 

 fruit is often full of these barred vessels (fig. 57, a). 

 It will be seen by reference to the vertical section 

 (fig. 5G) that one or two of these vessels are given off 

 and enter each bract at every whorl : the same 

 arrangement is also found in the strohilus of Lepido- 

 icndron Ilarcovrtii. The spores of the fruit under 

 notice are spherical, and appear to have a double 

 cell-wall. I have found no appearance of claters at- 

 tached to thcni, though Mr. Carruthers asserts he 

 has seen them. I have noticed the outer cell-wall 

 broken in many cases, and I am afraid jNIr. Carru- 

 thers has mistaken this broken outer wall for an 

 elater. I have come across these spores almost in 



