HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE- G OSS I P. 



253 



the remainder I am afraid from lack of proper food. 

 When first hatched the young ones are perfect, with 

 the exception of the ova depositor which is not fully 

 developed, when this is acquired is a subject for further 

 investigation. The full-grown insect, as shown in fig. 

 193, is some three and a half inches in extreme length, 

 it is furnished with four legs and two front feelers ; 

 these cannot be called legs, for they seem to be used 

 for no other purpose than catching the prey ; they 

 are furnished with two hard horny joints at the end, 

 with which they seize their food (see fig. 194) ; in this 

 respect nothing seems to come amiss, the young ones 

 I have seen as well as the old, feeding on various 

 daphnia, cyclops, &c. I am sorry to say they de- 

 voured all my Actincphrys sol, bred in the same 



Fig. 194. — Rattatra linearis in the act of catching insects. 



aquarium, while one of the old ones seized and de- 

 stroyed a full-grown tadpole of the frog ; they will 

 really devour anything. As my readers are well aware, 

 the Ranatra belongs to the Nepidce, and is closely 

 allied to the water-scorpion. It appears, like that 

 insect, to have wings, but from fear of hurting my 

 specimens, I have not been able clearly to make this 

 out, and shall be glad of any information ; if so they 

 are very hard to unfold and can be but little used. 

 It feeds on suction — the prey being seized by the 

 strong claspers, attached to the front feelers or legs, 

 and drawn up close for the horny and beak-like 

 proboscis to be thrust into it, with which the life of 

 the victim is sucked away. When handled, the insect 

 often feigns death ; when it crawls, as before observed, 

 the four legs are only used, although I have seen the 

 front feelers thrown round a plant or stem to assist 



as it were the progress. These feelers or legs consist 

 of two joints, the first can only be moved upward 

 (see fig. 194) the second joint can only be moved 

 downward and is often folded directly under the 

 second joint, so much so that there then appear 

 only two joints— the whole is capable of being thrown 

 out in quite a horizontal position, as fig. 193. So in. 

 this front leg or feeler we have two joints, each with 

 quite a separate action, but both moving in unison to 

 the desired object. I hope these few remarks, made 

 from personal observation, will be the means of ex- 

 citing further research into the life-history of this- 

 extremely interesting insect, relative to which I shall 

 be glad to receive any information. 



COLLIS WlLMOTT. 



THE HISTORY OF THE APPLE-TREE. 

 By H. G. Glasspoole. 



[Contittuedfrom p. 223.] 



THE varieties of apples are so many, and several- 

 have interesting histories attached to them, that 

 it would be impossible within the limits of this paper 

 to give an account of them. I will only mention one 

 or two of our most well-known kinds. The earliest 

 apple that ripens in our country is the jounneting, or 

 gennetting, a small, pale yellow, sweet tasting fruit ; 

 it is a very old variety, and is mentioned by Evelyn 

 in 1660, and described by Ray, 1688. There are 

 various opinions as to the etymology of the name. 

 Dr. Johnson has written it gineting ; while some 

 country people and the Americans call them juneating. 

 apples. In the old Latin writings they are termed 

 joannina, no doubt from their becoming ripe about. 

 St. John's Day (June 24th). One of our best eating 

 apples is the ribstone pippin, which an American 

 writer says stands as high in Britain as the Bank of 

 England, and to say that an apple has a ribstone 

 flavour is there the highest praise that can be 

 bestowed upon it. (A. J. Downing's " Fruit and 

 Fruit Trees of America.") 



The original tree sprang from some apple-pips 

 brought from Normandy at the close of the seven- 

 teenth century ; they were sown at Ribstone in. 

 Yorkshire, five of the pips grew, two producing 

 crabs, the other apples, one of which was the famous 

 pippin. The original tree is supposed to have been 

 planted in 1688 and stood till 1S10, when it was 

 blown down, but being supported by stakes in a 

 horizontal position, continued to produce fruit until 

 1835, when it lingered and died. This apple was 

 some years before it attained its popularity, for at the 

 end of the last century it was little known, as is 

 shown by the fact that in 1 785, and for some years- 

 afterwards, no more than twenty-five plants per annum 

 of this tree were grown at the celebrated Brompton 

 Park Nursery, whereas, in 185 1, about 2500 plants 

 were annually sent out thence (see Mrs. Burnand's 



