HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



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it is only necessary to sail until the two lines cross 

 each other. As I hope shortly to commence dredging 

 operations, visiting Weymouth, Torquay, Plymouth, 

 Falmouth, Penzance, and the Irish Channel, any 

 information relative to the dredging of these places, 

 would be to me of great service. — C. P. Ogilvie, 

 Zeis ton, Suffolk. 



" The Popular Science Review." — The last 

 number of this excellently edited and old-established 

 quarterly journal is a capital one. It contains articles 

 on " The Sources and Uses of Iron Pyrites," by 

 J. A. Phillips, F.G.S. ; on "The Evolution of the 

 Elements," by M. M. Pattison Muir, M.A.; "The 

 Structure and Origin of Limestones," by H. C. 

 Sorby, F.R.S. ; "The Supposed New Crater in the 

 Moon," by E. Neison, F.R.A.S. ; "Entomology," 

 by. the Editor (W. S. Dallas, F.L.S.) ; "The Col- 

 lapse of the Electric Light," by W. H. Stone ; 

 "The Ferae Naturae of the London Parks," by 

 J. E. Harting ; &c. 



Notes on the Colour, and on Mounting 

 "Noctiluca Miliaris." — It is well known that 

 to the Noctiluca miliaris, the phosphorescence of the 

 sea is due, at all events, in our own temperate waters. 

 Now, although like many of my brother naturalists, 

 I occasionally go to the sea-side, on botanical and 

 zoological thoughts intent, yet, strange to say, I never 

 saw the phenomenon until last summer, and have 

 always thought that the descriptions I have read in 

 books have been very much overdrawn. For instance, 

 in " Le Monde de la Mer," by Mons. Moquin- 

 Tandon, there is a particularly graphic description. 

 It must be confessed that this account is very much 

 like the phenomenon in one particular, it is both 

 luminous and glowing ; but at the same time it is 

 accurate. Myself and Dr. Worrall had been in a 

 yacht to a place some miles from Bangor, North Wales, 

 for zoological purposes. It was evening before we 

 returned, as the tide was against us, and the wind, 

 which had favoured us going, had at last utterly 

 failed us. The sea was placid, and it was when we 

 had fairly got into Beaumaris Bay, that the full 

 beauty of the phenomenon was apparent. The de- 

 scription was, as far as we could test it, true to 

 nature. We collected in vials numbers of the little 

 Noctilucae for examination when we arrived at home 

 (the hotel). When we had pretty well exhausted its 

 points of interest, we set about mounting some for 

 future examination. We mounted them in shallow 

 cells, with various preservative media, that we might 

 compare the results. We tried balsam, glycerine, 

 water (marine and fresh), glycerine jelly, Dean's 

 medium, and several others. One or two of the 

 slides rapidly deteroriated, others held out for a longer 

 period, but the specimens mounted in sea-water, 

 retained all their freshness to this date. As the animals 

 retain their shape, it would appear that there has 

 been no endosmose or exosmose action going on. 



The morning following our excursion, our boatman 

 (himself a collector) brought us a two-quart bottle 

 rather more than half-full of a red-lead, or rather 

 orange-lead coloured substance which he called spawn 

 of some kind, and he had brought it to us for micro- 

 scopical examination. On placing a small portion 

 under the microscope, we found it to consist solely of 

 dead Noctilucse. Shortly afterwards we took a stroll 

 along the shore, accompanied by our friend the boat- 

 man, and he showed us all along the shore an orange - 

 red line consisting of the dead bodies of the Noctilucse, 

 just as they had been left by the receding tide. 

 Having seen no account of the animal possessing 

 colour, I thought it might interest the readers of 

 Science-Gossip to be made acquainted with this 

 peculiar fact. — John E. Lord, Rawtenstall, 



BOTANY. 



Teratological Notes. — Noticing in your late 

 numbers various accounts of malformation of plants 

 and flowers accompanied by sketches, I am induced 

 to trouble you upon the subject. With regard to the 

 sketch of a "monstrous calceolaria," in your February 

 number, it is of the most common occurrence, especially 

 in the " Prince of Orange " variety, as I have had year 

 by year many identically similar malformed flowers, 

 both in the red and yellow varieties, blooming in my 

 garden, but have noticed that the plant producing 

 them, although apparently vigorous, soon withered 

 and died. I send you with this communication a 

 synanthic cyclamen, which I believe to be very un- 

 usual, but this also is the produce of a weakly-grown 

 bulb. May not these abortions be traced rather to a 

 last effort of expiring nature than to any variations of 

 soil or climate, just as dying fruit trees often pour 

 forth an abundant bloom which never matures, and 

 the tree shortly dies 1—J. I. 



Rare species found in Jersey. — I found Diotis 

 maritime, and Centaurca paniculata in large quantities 

 on the hillside at St. Ouen's Bay, Jersey, during the 

 past season. I thought our readers would like to 

 know that they still exist in their old localities. — 

 W. H. Jones. 



Echium Anglicum (Ray). — Upon looking over 

 an old edition of Hudson's "Flora Anglica" I saw 

 this species described, also there are a few notes 

 upon it, made by myself from actual specimens, 

 collected in 1871 at Homer, Shropshire. It is 

 evidently first described by Ray (vide Synopsis, 

 p. 35), so that it is not a species made to-day upon 

 insufficient grounds. Hudson ("Flora Anglica," 

 ed. 1762), has three species, distinguished as follows : 



1. E. vulgar e, caule simplici erecto, foliis caulinis 

 lanceolatis hispidis, floribus spicatis, staminibus corollam 

 equantibus. Viper's Bugloss. 



