236 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



me, and it has since safely pupated. — R. B. P., 

 Eastboiirite. 



New Rotifers. — '* Distyla tnusicola," pages 205 

 and 206 should read " Distyla irmscicola " — that is, the 

 moss-dwelling Distyla. As printed, the name has no 

 meaning, and in an original description the error is 

 of some little importance. I must apologise for the 

 trouble given you, and I fear I must have overlooked 

 the error, so far as that one occurring in the text, in 

 my revision of the proof. — D. Bryce. 



Aphides and their Monuments. — Being but a 

 poor entomologist — if indeed an entomologist at all — 

 I am not ashamed, after a diligent but fruitless search 

 through the few books on the subject within my 

 reach, to ask information from those of your corre- 

 spondents who may be more advanced in the study, 

 on a few points which have interested me greatly, 

 and from the observation of which — thanks to my 

 ignorance, I suppose — I have experienced, this 

 summer, many a delightful thrill such as some lovers 

 of nature are privileged to feel when a new light 

 " beats " upon them. I was hunting very successfully 

 for the so-called leaf-insect (fan-insect I think would 

 be a better name), the beautiful " abnormal " larva of 

 the Aphis aceris, and was led to the examination of 

 sycamore leaves, which also supplied abundance of 

 specimens. But besides these there were numerous 

 full-winged aphides quite dead, and most of them 

 perfect ; with others in various stages of dry dilapi- 

 dation, each seated on and firmly fixed to a flat, 

 circular bag which under high magnifying power 

 proved to be loosely woven of hair-like web. In 

 some of these bags I found a living larva resembling 

 a minute white nut-maggot. There was no discover- 

 able hole in the bag by which it could have entered, 

 and how it came there is as great a puzzle to me as 

 the apple inside the dumpling was to his majesty 

 George III., and possibly as easily explained by the 

 initiated. Any way, this fairly-like aphis on her 

 disc as she sits there a tiny monument to her tiny 

 self, forms an exceedingly pretty object for the 

 microscope under a two-inch objective. Here is an 

 epitaph for her. 



" Praises on tombs are trifles idly spent ; ' 

 A fly's own self is her best monument." 



Let me add that this is a true aphis, milk tubes 

 and all, and not a coccus, I would ask one more 

 question concerning some eggs which I find on the 

 sycamore leaf. They resemble those of the lace- 

 winged fly, but instead of occurring singly there are 

 about a dozen on as many pedicels which combine 

 into a single stem about i| of an inch in length, and 

 this is again divided into as many rootlets, which are 

 cunningly fastened to the leaf. To any kindly- 

 disposed entomologist I would say r.s.v.p. — 7". 

 E. A., Diss. 



BOTANY. 



The White Flower Question. "Will Mr. 

 Davy, the author of the delightfully impartial and 

 non-faddist paper in the September number, page 

 2X1, kindly answer the following queries relative to 

 the above subject : — i. In the Cornish districts which 

 are inordinately prolific in the way of white varia- 

 tions, does the heather bloom early or late as 

 compared with that growing further north : — 2. Is 

 the atmosphere of the said regions unduly moist, or 

 possibly charged with saline substances wafted 

 invisibly over from the adjacent ocean. — P. Q. 

 Keegan. 



Extraordinary^Growth of Wild Rose Hips. — 

 A short time ago a most interesting example was 

 brought before my notice of a wild rose hip, the 

 extraordinary size of ^which, together with its general 

 appearance, not only beat that of any I had ever seen 

 before, but completely astonished me. So strange 

 did this fruit appear that I think it worth while to 

 bring a brief description of it before the readers of 

 Science-Gossip, in the hopes that some one may be 



Fig. 197. — Abnormal growth of Rose Hip, 



able to give me some reason for such an unusually 

 enormous structure. The hip in question was one of 

 two that a gardener, belonging to the premises^ in 

 which I was staying, brought me to see from the 

 estate of Lord Bramwell at Four Elms, Kent. Both 

 of the hips were large, but the one the man gave me 

 to keep was by far the better of the two ; so of that 

 one alone I mean to speak. In general appearance 

 the fruit might easily have been likened to a 

 ripe tomato, so far as its colour and texture, were 

 concerned, for it was of the most brilliant orange red , 



