IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



69 



both apparently basking in the sun at the surface of 

 the water ; neither made any effort to escape. They 

 appeared to have no power of swimming nor diving. 

 I hope some of your correspondents may be able to 

 inform me what they were. — Junior. 



Hydrophilus piceus. — Can any of the readers of 

 Science-Gossip inform me whether the above-men- 

 iioned insect can be reared in captivity ; if it can, is 

 Jthere any locality near London where I can look for 

 the beetle or eggs with any chance of success ; or 

 can I buy a supply of the eggs of any aquarium 

 •dealer? The Rev. J. G. Wood, in his "Fresh and 

 Salt Water Aquarium," gives some information about 

 this beetle, but he neither mentions the time of year 

 when the egg is to be found, nor the food of the larva. 

 On Plate x. he depicts two specimens, one twice the 

 size of the other ; are these the different sexes, or 

 (extreme variations of size ? — F. Crosbie, Bar net. 



The Doubleday Collection. — I was very 

 pleased to see the note in your last number from Mr. 

 James English stating that the above collection is in 

 such good condition, it would however have been of 

 far greater use if published earlier. When Mr. 

 Farn's letter appeared in the " Entomologist," I 

 waited for a month to see if any one would contradict 

 it, but as no one seemed to trouble about it I took 

 the matter up myself — my letter was published in the 

 ■"Entomologists' Monthly Magazine" for December, 

 and drew from Mr. Farn (the gentleman who had 

 alleged the collection to be in such bad condition) a 

 reply evidently intended to cast ridicule upon myself. 

 I again wrote to the editors of the " Entomologists' 

 Monthly Magazine " with a reply to Mr. Farn, fully 

 refuting all his accusations and remarks, but had my 

 letter returned, with a note from the editors to the 

 effect that as they were then satisfied that the collec- 

 tion was in good condition the correspondence would 

 he stopped. I certainly thought that a short note 

 from the editors to that effect would have appeared 

 in the next number, but this was not done, thus 

 entomologists are left to believe that I am totally 

 disconcerted by Mr. Farn's letter, which is by no 

 means the case. I think under these circumstances 

 I am fully justified in making these remarks to correct 

 so great a misconception with regard to myself. 

 Mr. English's note in last month's Science-Gossip 

 settles the matter in a most satisfactory manner. — 

 W. J. Vandenbergh, Jan., Hornsey, Middlesex. 



Glyciphagus Plumiger. — In the July number of 

 Science-Gossip, Mr. A. D. Michael announced the 

 capture of a single specimen of this acarus, and after 

 remarking on one in the possession of Mr. George, of 

 Kirton Lindsay, says, "We may, I think, fairly 

 claim this as a British species, although only a single 

 individual has been detected in each instance." I 

 have been fortunate in capturing a large number, 

 male and female, of this interesting mite : and as in 

 the former case, they were found among the fodder 

 in a stable in this city. As there is a considerable 

 quantity of foreign hay used in this place, it is quite 

 probable it may have been introduced ; but the fact 

 of its being alive and active, in the middle of De- 

 cember, during a very severe frost, shows that it is 

 hardy enough for our northern climate. — J. Lambert, 

 Edinburgh. 



Yews in Churchyards.— In reply to E. Straker's 

 desire to obtain information respecting the various 

 traditions relative to the planting of the yew in 

 churchyards, &c, the following extracts may not be 

 uninteresting to him, or other readers of " Science- 

 ■Gossip ; " they have been carefully searched out by 



a friend living in North Wales, and are well authen- 

 ticated. The yew (Taxus baccata), so celebrated in 

 our own country for its churchyard associations, and 

 for its being employed in the manufacture of bows, 

 the weapon principally used by our warrior ancestors 

 before the introduction of fire-arms, has fewer 

 legends connected with it than might be supposed. 

 The custom of planting yew-trees in churchyards has 

 never been satisfactorily explained. Some have sup- 

 posed that these trees were placed near the churches, 

 for the purpose of affording branches on Palm Sun- 

 day ; others, that they might be safe there from 

 cattle, on account of their value for making bows ; 

 others, that they were emblematical of silence and 

 death ; some, that they were useful for the purpose 

 of affording shade or shelter to those places of wor- 

 ship when in their primitive form. Different writers 

 have entered more philosophically into this question, 

 and presume that the yew was one of those evergreens 

 which, from its shade and shelter, was especially 

 cultivated by the Druids in their sacred groves, and 

 around their sacrificial circles ; that when Christianity 

 superseded Druidism, the same places were chosen as 

 the sites of the new worship, and that in this arose 

 the association of the yew-tree with our churches and 

 churchyards. It was also employed in funerals, 

 ("by shroud of white, stuck all with yew;") in 

 some parts of England dead bodies were rubbed over 

 with an infusion of its leaves, to preserve them from 

 putrefaction ; and many of our poets allude to its 

 connection with ideas of death. According to 

 Pennant's Scotland, vol. iii., page 25,' 4th edition, 

 the yew, by our ancestors, for a classical reason, 

 seems to have been planted among the repositories 

 of the dead ; and they had also a political one, for 

 placing them about their houses : in the first instance 

 they were the substitutes of the Incisa Cupressns ; in 

 the other, they were the designed provision of 

 materials for the sturdy bows of our warlike an- 

 cestors. Nature, who speaks to our eye as well as 

 to our ear, paints the yew with gloom ; and we see 

 at a glance, the propriety of planting it in church- 

 yards, with respect to poetic sentiments, as well as to 

 its former warlike utility. Tennyson imagines man's 

 last foe, death, as "walking all alone beneath a yew." 

 The "In Memoriam " of Tennyson describes the 

 yew at the " lychgate : " 



" Old yew, which graspest at the stones 

 That name the under-lying dead, 

 Thy fibres net the dreamless head, 

 Thy roots are wrapt about the bones," &c. 



Various other poetical allusions might be mentioned, 

 from Wordsworth and others, in reference to these 

 dismal trees, which are very beautiful, but perhaps 

 others may contribute further remarks on the interest- 

 ing subject of the yew-tree.— ii. Edzvards. 



Yew-Trees in Churchyards. — As to the reason 

 why yew-trees are so often found in churchyards. I 

 was walking with a clergyman three or four years 

 ago in a churchyard in Kent, and he pointed out to 

 me the four yew-trees which grew, one at each corner 

 of the sacred inclosure. He told me that the reason 

 why these trees are so often found in old churchyards 

 is that there used to be a law that every parish was to 

 grow yew to be made into bows for the use of the 

 parishioners. As the foliage is very injurious to 

 cattle (cows which have eaten of it frequently die) 

 the yew-trees were planted in the churchyards, in 

 order that there might be no danger of the cattle 

 having access to it. —C. 



Tasmanian Land Shells. — Mr. Pettes, in an ar- 

 ticle on "Sea Goings," gives me credit for having 



