HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE - G OS SIP. 



95 



intCTCsting topic ? " Luscus," who dates from Bristol, 

 writing to the Standard ' ' says : It may interest some 

 of your readers to hear that the Glastonbury Thorn — 

 a tree of which is in my parish — is blossoming this 

 Christmas. The blossom is small and of a white 

 colour. I enclose a spray from a branch before me, 

 which is fairly covered with blossom. The tree on 

 which it grew is in an orchard, and is as large as a 

 good-sized apple-tree, and must be of very great age. 

 The legend of Joseph of Arimathea planting his staff 

 in the ground is well known, and generally dis- 

 believed, but the thorn can be traced back to a very 

 early period at Glastonbuiy, and was probably 

 brought over by some early monk (perhaps in Saxon 

 times) whose conscience did not revolt at a pious 

 fraud. Pidman's Weekly News says that a piece of 

 the original Glastonbury Thorn is growing in the 

 garden of a cottage between Hewish and Wool- 

 mingston. For several years past, the tree — or, 

 rather, a small bush — has been visited at midnight on 

 Old Christmas Eve by people who vow that the bush 

 actually blossomed while they were watching it, and 

 became bare again shortly afterwards. On Friday 

 night, the number of ' pilgrims ' to this shrine was 

 at least 200 — from Crewkerne, Misterton, and other 

 places — and those who came to scoff remained — if not 

 * to pray ' at least to be convinced of the wonderful 

 phenomenon. They say that at half-past eleven not 

 a sign of a flower could be seen, but that at midnight 

 every t\^^g of one side of the bush was covered with 

 delicately-tinted May light blossoms." This last 

 paragraph appeared in a Crewkerne paper, and was 

 copied, among others, by a Yeovil paper having a 

 circulation of some 25,000 copies in Somerset and the 

 neighbouring counties. Strange to say, however, it 

 has not been contradicted nor even queried so far as 

 I have ^been able to ascertain. The natives seem 

 quite capable of " swallowing " the above and a 

 great deal more about " the holy thorn." This 

 notice in a scientific journal may be the means of 

 causing some of your curious readers to endeavour to 

 throw a little light on this superstition or phenomenon 

 — whichever they may decide it to be. — VV. Mac- 

 millait, Castle Cary. 



The Sun. — While in the fields last autumn with 

 my little boy, he called my attention to what he 

 called little black balls rising out of the sun. On 

 looking at the sun, I fancied I could witness similar 

 phenomena. Will some one kindly account for this ? 

 —Pater. 



North Winds. — A friend of mine asks me a 

 question I am unable to answer, and therefore pass it 

 on to your readers. How is it that the row of plants 

 facing the north suffer less severely from the cold 

 than those facing the south ? — Pater. 



The Domestic Cat. — I am glad that the ques- 

 tion of the introduction of the domestic cat into 

 Europe is exciting attention, for there are several 

 conflicting data to reconcile with the facts of history 

 on the matter. Professor Mahaffey, in his " Old 

 Greek Life," claims the Cat among the household 

 animals of the ancient Greeks, while the Rev. Wil- 

 liam Houghton (a contributor to Smith's "Dictionary 

 of the Bible"), in a paper on the domestic animals 

 of the Assyrians, in "Trans. Soc. Bib. Archccology, " 

 vol. V. p. I, maintains that the Cat was entirely un- 

 known to the ancients — Assyrian, Greek, or Roman, 

 and that its use and "cultus" were confined solely 

 to Egypt. On the other hand, there is the indispu- 

 table evidence that when Herodutus, in " Euterpe," 

 describes the reverence paid by the Egyptians to their 

 cats, he does so in terms which imply that the crea- 



ture was well known to his readers ; and with this 

 agrees also his theory of that reverence as arising 

 from the goddess Artemis having taken refuge in 

 Egypt in the form of a cat during the temporary 

 overthrow of the Olympic deities by the Gigantoma- 

 chia. Further also, in the ancient (?) mock heroic 

 poem of the Batrachomuomachia, at one time attri- 

 buted to Homer, and more probably written in the 

 later Greek period, as it is quite in the style of 

 Lucian, there are no less than three distinct references 

 to the Cat : the hero of the poem, the Prince Psycerpax, 

 was one whom "cats pursued in vain." His elder 

 brother "perished by the ravening cat, as near my 

 door the Prince unheedful sat." And the chief of the 

 army of the mice, when they attack their rivals the 

 frogs, wears a cuirass ' ' faced with the trophy of a 

 cat they flayed." Heroic mice indeed ! Still, despite 

 all these citations, it is also certain that the ancients 

 used a species of " Mustela," or Ailurus, or ferret, as 

 a destroyer of household mice ; and the early Chris- 

 tian bishop, Timothy Ailurus, was so named from 

 his thin, eager, weasel face and piercing eyes. The 

 discussion in the Academy unfortunately dropped, 

 and I was at the time too seriously ill to take it up 

 (indeed, I now write without my books and quite 

 from memoiy), still I trust that some more of your 

 readers may find time and inclination next month to 

 pursue this interesting subject further. — W. R. Cooper, 

 F.P.A.S. 



EXCHANGES (contimied.') 



Duplicates. — Fine-bred specimens of the large American 

 Silk-moth {Boiidtyx Cecropid) in exchange for birds' eggs, side- 

 blown. Accepted offers answered in three days. — John Thorpe, 

 Spring-gardens_ jMiddleton, Manchester. 



Istkinia iiicrzus, a pure gathering, in exchange for Mon- 

 tery or Bermuda Diatomaceous Earths. — R. Rattray, 30, 

 Balfour-street, Dundee. 



Globergerina Ooze, mid-Atlantic, and fossil Polyzoa, 

 carboniferous, for good slides. — N., 18, Elgin-road, St. Peter's 

 Park, London. 



Very good Micro. Slides to exchange for British birds' eggs — 

 any except the very common. — Send list to Micro, care of Mr. 

 C. Gray, 11, Crooked-lane, London, E.C. 



BOOKS, &c., RECEIVED. 



" Vis-Inertiae, and Recent E.xplorations." By \V. L. Jordan 

 London : Hardwicke & Bogue. 

 " Land and Water." March. 

 " American Naturalist." February. 

 "Canadian Entomologist." February. 

 " Les Mondes." February. 

 " Botanische Zeitung." February. 

 "Monthly Microscopical Journal." jMarch. 

 " Ber. Brierly's Journal. " March. 

 " Boston Journal of Chemistry. " February. 

 &c. &c. &c. 



' Communications Rexeived up to qth ult. from : — ^ 



T. B. W.— T. S.— J. F. R.— G. D.— J. A. P.— H. L T. 



, A. W. R.— T. J. W.— E. V. B.— F. Q.— F. F.— C. W. B.— 



I Prof. G.— W. L. S.— W. L. W. E.— H. W. T.— W. G. P.— 



W. M.— E. C— W. R. C— A. F.— W. R. T.-A. J. R.— 



A. C. C— W. W. I.— J. F. G.— W. E. T.— G. C— E. R. B.— 



T. W. T.— H. B.— A. D. M.— W. B. G.— C. F. W.— P. W. B. 



— F. T. M.— R. M. C— A. M.— A. J. A.— G. D.— S. H.— 



A. B.— 3.1 A. IS.— J. W S.— G. W. C— G. L. B.— G. M. D. 



— C. L, jun. — J. T. W. — T. B. A. — W. J. B. - W. Y. 



' — C. F. W. T. W. — I. H. K. — Col. H. — J. H,| A. J.— 



, H. A. A.— H. R. M.— J. T. R.— W. P.— T. W.— E. E.— 



! E. J. L.-A. H. A. -A. J. A.— C. B.-W. L. N.-R. H. M.— 



J. C -J. H. A. J.-A. H.— D. B.-A. B.-J. W.-T. H. B.— 



S. J. W. S.-T. C. R.-W. T. E.-J. T.-M. F.--E. L.-S. S. 



' -M. H. R.-B. B.-S. H.-F. J. A.-C. G.-E. H.-G. W. 



— G. N.— H. H. C.-T. B.-B. P. -A. G.-R. R.— D. B.— 



Dr. C— J. J. M.— W. G. N.— F. W. P.— M. M.— C. W. S.— 



E. R. F.— A. W.— J. W.— G. K.-A. C— E. L.— W. B.— 



W. H. G.-F. H. D.-A. S.-A. H. W.-G. C.-W. E. T.- 



H F. F.— H. C— T. W.— F. M. H. -E. L.--M. L. W.— 



H. J.— C. D.— R. V. T.-M. W.— G. B.-J. C.-E. H.— 



J. W.— T. P.— W. E. L.— H. P.-C. J. W., &c. &c. 



