HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G OSSIP. 



i43 



" Honey-Stalks."— It is generally supposed that 

 the writer of "Titus Andronicus " referred to clover 

 flowers in the lines quoted by C. Foran. The long 

 tubes of the corolla in the flowers of Trifolium pratense 

 abound in honey. It is, I believe, an error to suppose 

 that the clover flower produces rot in sheep, though 

 the author of " Titus Andronicus " leads us to suppose 

 so, as the lines concerning the "honey-stalks" seem 

 to show : 



"With words more sweet, and yet more dangerous, 

 Than baits to fish, or honey-stalks to sheep ; 

 When as the one is wounded with the bait, 

 The other rotted with delicious feed." 



I may here remark that the play " Titus Andronicus " 

 is very generally believed not to have been written by 

 Shakespeare at all. I think I am right in asserting 

 that in modern editions of Shakespeare this play 

 is omitted as spurious. — Charles F. IV. T. Williams, 

 Bath. 



" Honey-Stalks."— (No. 173, p. 118) : the flowers 

 of white clover {Trifolium repens, L.). It is an in- 

 teresting fact that this is still the local name of the 

 plant in Shakespeare's native country. — Robert 

 Holland. 



" Honey-Stalks." — Nares in his Glossary quoting 

 the passage from Shakespeare's " Titus Andronicus " 

 referred to by your correspondent, C. Foran, says 

 " honey-stalks " are clover flowers, which contain a 

 sweet juice, and that it is common for cattle to over- 

 charge themselves with clover and die. I may add 

 that country children often suck the flowers for their 

 sweet juice, which they call honey. — W. Thompson, 

 Sedbergh. 



"Honey-Stalks." — I find under this head in 

 Nares' " Glossary of Shakespeare," " Clover flowers, 

 which contain a sweet juice ; it is common for cattle 

 to overcharge themselves with clover and die." I 

 hope that this explanation will satisfy your corres- 

 pondent. — F. A. Bather. 



Cossus AT Sugar. — In answer to the query in 

 May number of Science-Gossip, I may say that in 

 July 1876 I saw a specimen of the above insect on 

 sugar at Willans, near Lea Bridge, Hackney, but it 

 flew off the tree immediately the light came upon it. 

 The same incident occurred last year, but I was un- 

 successful in bottling the insect, which was a very 

 shabby specimen. However, the next night he paid 

 us another visit, and we captured him, but owing to 

 bad condition gave him his freedom. I also met a 

 collector who had a freshly-emerged specimen which 

 he assured me he took at sugar, at the same locality. 

 — Arthur J. Rose. 



Cossus at Sugar. — Your correspondent, W. H. 

 Newberry, inquires for instances of Cossus ligni- 

 perda coming to sugar. A few summers ago I took 

 . a specimen near Semley, "Wilts, in an oak-tree which 

 I had painted with a mixture of treacle and beer, it 

 crawled up from the ground to the first drop down 

 the base of trunk ; this, however, is the only occasion 

 I have noticed the species attracted by sweet fluid. — 

 H. P. Stock. 



Abnormal character of the Season.— It may 

 be worth putting on record that this year the palm- 

 tree, and the blackthorn, only began to blossom in this 

 neighbourhood on May 2. According to the Rev. L. 

 Jenyns, the flowering of the former tree ranges from 

 March 17 to April 19, as that of the blackthorn from 

 March 15 to April 20. The return of birds of passage 

 has been little affected. Swallows were first seen 

 here on April 20, and the cuckoo was first heard on 

 April 25, dates by no means exceptionally late. This 



fact disproves the old notion that migratory birds 

 have a mysterious foreknowledge of the state of the 

 weather in the country to which they are going, and 

 time their movements accordingly. — J. IV. Slater, 

 Aylesbury. 



Sleep of Ants. — I should be obliged if any of 

 your correspondents could give me the following in- 

 formation. Mr. Emerson in chapter iv. (entitled "Lan- 

 guage ") of his essay on " Nature " says : " The in- 

 stincts of the ant are very unimportant, considered as 

 the ant's, but a moment a ray of relation is seen to 

 extend from it to man, and the little drudge is seen 

 to be a monitor, a 'little body with a mighty heart,' 

 then all its habits, even that said to be recently ob- 

 served that it never sleeps, become sublime." What • 

 I wish to know is whether there is any evidence to 

 prove that the ant never sleeps ? I should be much 

 obliged if any correspondent can give me this informa- 

 tion. — S. T. 



The Thermal Sources of Carlsbad. — I am 

 very glad to see in the Science-Gossip recently, 

 that a local cause for hot water has been discovered 

 at Carlsbad. Will you allow me to offer you a quo- 

 tation from my " Interior of the Earth," 1870, " Hot 

 Springs" p. 51 ? "It is sufficiently proved by the 

 analysis of the waters, that the materials carried with 

 them are conducive to heat. As then these trickling 

 subterraneous waters work downwards, they come to 

 the materials which had long ago been subjected to 

 the natural heating causes ; these materials gathered 

 over, and upon the faces of the harder strata, offer 

 themselves to the perpetual erosion of every trickle, 

 so that the alluvial valley is kept perpetually supplied 

 with the bases of the metallic alkalies, with water to 

 create the heat, and with the acids to modify that 

 heat." The cause of heat in all hot springs is local 

 It has suited science to assign the cause to a hot 

 interior, founded on the nebular hypothesis of Laplace, 

 but this is not proved, while the local cause for hot 

 springs is proved. — //. P. Malet, Florence. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip a week earlier than heretofore, we 

 cannot possibly insert in the following number any communi- 

 cations which reach us later than the gth of the previous 

 month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We receive so many queries 

 which do not bear the writers' names that we are forced to 

 adhere to our rule of not noticing them. 



E. J. Ockenden. — See chapter in " Collecting and Preserving 

 Natural History Specimens" (London: Hardwicke & Bogue, 

 price 2 s - 6d.) It is written by Professor Ralph Tate, and gives 

 you full instructions for removing mollusca from their shells. 

 Gwyn Jeffrey's " British Conchology," published by Van 

 Voorst, is the best work we have on this subject. 



A. Seinad (Colchester).— Get Taylor's "Aquarium : its 

 history, principles, and management," price 6s. London: 

 Hardwicke & Bogue ; where you will find full instructions as to 

 the details you enquire about. 



L. Hawkins. — We have forwarded your specimens to be 

 named, but you could easily identify and name them for yourself, 

 by getting Cooke's " Microscopic Fungi," price 6s., from Hard- 

 wicke & Bogue, 192 Piccadilly, W. 



J. R. Corder. — The common cray-fish (Astacus fluviatilis) 

 can be kept in aquaria. Its food consists of aquatic mollusca, 

 insect larvae, &c, and the cray-fish would even be useful in a 

 large aquarium, in consuming and removing dead garbage. 

 See an account of a domesticated cray-fish in Bell's " British 

 Stalk-eyed Crustacea." The smooth newt (Lissotritcn punc- 

 tatus) is soonest adapted to an aquarium. Mr. King, Sea Horse 

 House, Portland Road, London, could supply you with material 

 and objects for aquaria. 



E. Viles.— The "slimy substance" on the gravel paths was 

 no doubt the Nostoc commune. 



