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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Nov. 1, 18G7. 



in Cumberland that lie became acquainted with 

 Southey, sometimes shared in the simple intellec- 

 tual pleasures of his household, and profited by his 

 boundless stores of knowledge. "Here also," he 

 says, "I held invaluable communication with Words- 

 worth, . . who joined me in many an excursion, 

 and delighted me among the dry details of my own 

 study with the outpourings of his manly sense, and 

 with the beauteous and healthy images which were 

 ever starting up within his mind during his com- 

 munion with Nature." 



There have been men who, after a long poetical 

 communion with the outer world, and imaginative 

 intercourse with the outer glories of Nature, have 

 learnt at length to be idolaters of Nature in a pan- 

 theistic sense, bordering on Atheism '.—and there 

 have not been wanting men who, calling themselves 

 of the "Wordsworth school," have adopted this 

 perverted and idolatrous dream. But Wordsworth 

 was a man of firm religious convictions, " and many 

 a time," says Professor Sedgwick, " when it was 

 my great happiness to roam with him over his native 

 mountains, have I heard him pour out his thanks, 

 that while he had been permitted to slake his inner- 

 most thirst at Nature's spring, he had been led to 

 think of the God of Nature, and never to forget His 

 redeeming love ! " 



Safe under this belief, surely not only the poetical 

 but most reflective minds, while endeavouring to 

 study somewhat of Nature's wonders, and the course 

 of secondary causes which are ever working out the 

 original fiat of the all-powerful Creator, may delight 

 to trace the constant creative and sustaining influ- 

 ence of that Divine essence which permeates and 

 acts on and in all things, with a "continuity" (to 

 borrow Mr. President Grove's word), which controls 

 and harmonises all, from the "strength of the 

 mountains," built up of the dislocated, torn, twisted, 

 riven, and molten materials of some former condition 

 of the earth ! even down to our little friends that 

 spring on its sides, or — 



The meanest herb and flower 

 That drinks the morning dew ! 



P. S. Bury. 



HELPS TO DISTRIBUTION. 



IN the course of a walk lately through a shady lane 

 near Bath, I came suddenly upon three or four 

 harvest spiders (Pbalangium opilio). As they scam- 

 pered away, I observed that one of them had a dark 

 object on its right fore leg, which evidently formed 

 no part of its normal structure. On securing my 

 long-legged friend, and examining the object with a 

 lens, I found, to my great surprise, that it was a 

 specimen of Chelifer caneroides, which had fixed 

 itself to the leg, and was holding on " like grim 

 death." Indeed, so tightly was the little creature 



attached, that I had some difficulty in making it let 

 go, in order to transfer it to a bottle. 



The question at once arose in my mind : What 

 business had Chelifer in such a strange position ? 

 It could not be with a view to a dinner ; one would 

 as soon expect to see a weasel attack a lion, as a 

 Chelifer seize on a Phalangium. Besides, it had 

 attached itself, not to the part usually infested by 

 parasites, the soft juicy abdomen, but to the middle 

 of the hard dry tibia. As far as I know, the 

 Pseudoscorpions feed exclusively on insects, smaller 

 than themselves, such as Atropos, the Acarina, &c, 

 hence their occasional occurrence among books and 

 papers, where they are of great service to the 

 student. 



I am inclined to think that in this little incident 

 is involved a circumstance connected with the life 

 history of the lower animals, which deserves to be 

 more thoroughly investigated. I mean, the method 

 taken by them (or rather provided for them) of 

 transporting themselves from one spot to another. 



With regard to the vegetable world, we know 

 that special precautions are taken by the dispersion 

 of seeds, to insure the wide dissemination of plants, 

 and to prevent them from overcrowding and thereby 

 starving each other. A stroll on a fine day during 

 summer will generally show us the pappus of the 

 thistle or dandelion floating high above the ground. 

 Later in the year, we may see the winged samara of 

 the sycamore twisting and twirling through the air, 

 or hear the cracking of the furze-pods, as they 

 expel their contents with a force sufficient to carry 

 the seed a considerable distance. And the chances 

 are, that on returning from our walk, we find our 

 trowser legs bristling with the hooked fruit of the 

 bed-straw and burdock. These, and a thousand 

 similar phenomena are so easy of observation, and 

 the methods employed are so patent, that the 

 veriest tyro in botauy must often have had bis 

 attention drawn to them. Moreover, the purpose 

 for which these curious contrivances are brought 

 into play, are in all cases the same — viz., 1st, to 

 found new colonies, far away from the parent plant ; 

 2nd, to prevent the exhaustion of the soil by the 

 too close proximity of plants of the same species, a 

 calamity which would inevitably take place, if the 

 seed were always dropped straight to the ground, 

 as we may see in the familiar instance of the fairy- 

 ring. 



Now why should not laws of a like nature be 

 applicable to the humbler members of the animal 

 world ? 



The Scorpion tribe generally (and, I suppose 

 Chelifer among them) are blest with "long" 

 families, possessed of huge appetites, but with 

 restricted powers of locomotion. Hungry mouths 

 have to be filled as surely among crustaceans as 

 Christians ; and doubtless a healthy brood of 

 Pseudoscorpions, moving, as they can, forwards, 



