4Q 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



been unusually numerous, and no doubt the influx of 

 birds will help our native species to give a good 

 account of the larvae of insects. Wild duck, teal, 

 widgeon, &c, were abundant in Norfolk and Suffolk, 

 and were caught in immense numbers at the decoys. 

 Scottish eagles found the Highlands too severe and 

 drifted southerly to England, a golden eagle being 

 shot at Fritton, near Lowestoft, where it and an 

 uunsht companion had been attracted by the hosts of 

 wild fowl, &c. The poor paltry poppers at small 

 birds from behind hedges have had capital "sport" 

 this severe winter ! 



Errata. — In my note at page 14 of Science- 

 Gossip for Ziphius curvirostris read Ziphius caviros- 

 tris, and for Professor Fowler read Professor Flower. 

 — T. Southwell. 



The Watford Natural History Society. — 

 Part II. of the second volume of the " Transactions" 

 of this vigorous society is to hand, containing the 

 Anniversary Address of the President (Dr. A. T. 

 Brett), and papers on "British Butterflies" by the 

 Rev. C. M. Perkins; "Observations on Injurious 

 Insects," and "Economic Entomology," by Eleanor 

 O. Ormerod. 



The Moa not yet Extinct (?) — A miner writes 

 to a New Zealand paper to say that whilst he and his 

 mate were prospecting for gold last autumn, between 

 lake Rotorua and the Cannibal Gorges, in the pro- 

 vince of Nelson, he saw what he believed to be the 

 moa. His description is as follows : — " We heard a 

 strange screeching noise in a gully about a hundred 

 yards from where we were camped, and went to 

 where the noise proceeded from, and to our surprise 

 we saw two gigantic birds coming towards us. They 

 did not show the least alarm at seeing us, but con- 

 tinued coming to where we were, so we took to our 

 heels. We heard them two or three times that night 

 again. Having no gun with us we thought it advis- 

 able to start the next morning, for fear they would 

 tackle us. One of them was apparently about twelve 

 feet high, and the other somewhat smaller, with 

 feathers resembling the kiwi's." 



BOTANY. 



The Sea Lettuce {Ulva latissima), — At a recent 

 meeting of the San Francisco Microscopical Society, 

 a paper on the "Fruiting of Sea Lettuce," was read 

 by C. L. Anderson, M.D., who said : — " A few days 

 ago I collected a quantity of Ulva latissima for my 

 marine aquarium. The fronds were well grown 

 (October 26), of a beautiful deep green colour. The 

 plant was put into the water at night. Next morning, 

 quite early, the water had a turbid look, and I feared 

 there was too much dead matter ever to become clear. 

 But as the sun came to shine on the side of the 

 aquarium, I noticed a band of green matter bordering 



the side in the sunshine, and adhering, apparently, to 

 the glass at the upper surface of the water, and the 

 aquarium was clear. When the green band was 

 touched there seemed to be a dispersion of the mate- 

 rial, but readily coming together again. Like a cloud 

 of very minute insects they were constantly changing 

 the form of the mass, and, amceba-like, throwing out 

 processes here and there, the greater part, however, 

 clinging to the glass. Putting a small quantity under 

 the microscope I found two kinds, or forms. One 

 was quite round, and moved slowly, with an irregular 

 rolling motion. I could not detect cilia, although the 

 motion would indicate their presence. The other 

 form was smaller, conical, and very active, moving so 

 rapidly that at first I could not make out its form. A 

 careful inspection revealed the fact that they were the 

 zoospores of the ulva. The conical form had fila- 

 ments at the apex. Carpenter says ' ciliated.' I 

 would rather consider them as accessory to cilia, and 

 intended as holdfasts that the plant may grow. Both 

 Dr. Carpenter and Dr. Wythe present illustrations of 

 these zoospores, showing their development from the 

 frond cells of the ulva, and Carpenter remarks that 

 ' they might easily be taken for true infusoria.' And 

 so they might. On further examination I found some 

 of these zoospores clinging to the broken walls of the 

 cells, both forms, and exhibiting active exertions to 

 be free. As to the generative process, of which Car- 

 penter says, ' nothing whatever is known,' I am of the 

 opinion that the filament spores are fertilised after 

 their escape from the cell by the round spores, and 

 that the latter, having performed their function, like 

 the antherozoa, disappear, and the filament spores 

 become fixed and grow by the multiplication of cells 

 peculiar to other algae. The next morning these zoo- 

 spores had diffused themselves into the water, and the 

 turbidity remains as it was the first morning before 

 the ' swarming.' It is likely that nearly all these 

 germs have perished in the water for want of a 

 congenial place to become attached that they might 

 grow." 



" Monstrosities " in Plants. — In the middle of 

 last summer I had many plants of Canterbury bells 

 in my garden which had grown from seed that had 

 been sown in 1876, only two plants of the lot having 

 flowered in the year after they were sown, as biennials 

 are supposed to do, and ripening their seeds before 

 they died. The remainder became larger plants, and 

 were all in the following summer now past covered 

 with blossom. Some of the flowers were white, some 

 blue. Among the plants with white flowers was 

 nothing that I noticed as abnormal. Among those 

 with blue flowers two plants presented variations 

 worthy of notice. One of them was crowned with 

 a terminal head of synanthic flowers, as nearly as can 

 be like the figure of such a production in Dr. Masters's 

 "Vegetable Teratology." The corollas of several 

 flowers were fused into an oblong dish, to one end of 



