Jan. ], 1S69.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



21 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



What's in a Name ?— As the subject of local or 

 vulgar names and their origin has been brought 

 before the readers of Science-Gossip several times 

 recently, the following incident may not be deemed 

 unworthy of notice. It happened one day lately 

 that my sister was showing our gardener a collec- 

 tion of wild-flower drawings, and as she placed 

 before him one of the woodbine, she remarked, "I 

 did them all," at the same time asking him whether 

 he recognized the flower, and knew its name. After 

 some hesitation, he replied, "Didn't you call it 'I- 

 did-um-all ' ? " This was said in such simplicity 

 and good faith that, had he not been undeceived, he 

 would assuredly have gone away under the 

 impression that he had been told its correct name. 

 It is not improbable that, through his means, the 

 fragrant honeysuckle might have been handed down 

 to succeeding generations under the bewildering 

 and not very poetical title of " Ididumall ; " thereby 

 puzzling future botanists, and causing endless spe- 

 culations and ingenious theories to account for the 

 origin of so extraordinary a local name. — M.G. 



Vulgar Names (p. 250).— Without at present 

 discussing the accuracy of Mr. II. C. Richter's con- 

 clusions on this subject, although I entirely dissent 

 from them, will he kindly tell me the proper name 

 of the " little blue flower " which is in Wiltshire 

 called " old sow " ? I shall be glad to receive any- 

 other " vulgar names " which he may have on hand, 

 to be sent either to the Editor, or to James Britten, 

 High Wycombe. 



Bee Odours. — A friend of mine who keeps 

 several beehives asserted to me positively the 

 other day that bees emit a strong smell when going 

 to sting anyone; he described it as a "pungent" 

 smell. 1 told him I did not believe that bees did 

 any such thing, and that he must be mistaken. I 

 now ask your opinion on the subject. — B. M. 

 Bemington, Farsarse, Bray. 



Growth in Lemon. — I have observed a similar 

 growth of the seeds in an over-ripe lemon as 

 described by Mr. Alfred Hume in the last number 

 of Science-Gossip. The lemon was gathered from 

 a large tree in our conservatory. 1 should imagine 

 that such a germination of the seeds was not of un- 

 common occurrence in fruit left to decay on the 

 tree. Fruit in this state, however, is not likely to 

 reach the hands of our fruiterers here. I have 

 always understood that oranges and lemons when 

 gathered abroad for shipment to this country are 

 plucked in a green and half-ripe state ; therefore 

 this would at once account for the supposed rarity 

 of such an occurrence. — /. 67., Minehead. 



[Other correspondents furnish similar replies. — 

 Ed.] 



Lucerne Fields. — Mr. Melvill was quite correct 

 in his surmise about clover and lucerne fields, which 

 are very extensive in the neighbourhood of Deal, 

 and I seldom observed Colias hyale out of these 

 fields, although so plentiful this year ; I also took 

 Acontia luctuosa, one of the day-flying Noctuina, 

 which is rather scarce in a lucerne field. — H. C. 

 Leslie. 



A Curious Fact. — Whilst visiting a remote but 

 rather considerable town in Lincolnshire, where I 

 had not been for nearly twenty years, save on a few 

 flying visits, I called upon an old schoolfellow, a 



chemist, and whilst talking with him a raven looked 

 in at the door and received his accustomed bone. 

 The bird had such a genial expression that I could 

 not help asking his history. He belonged to the 

 landlady of the principal hotel in the place ; in fact, 

 a pet bird. Accustomed to every luxury in feeding, 

 but still a bird of prey, his raids, however, were 

 friendly ones, and freely responded to ; he had no 

 need to cater for himself. In the hotel yard there 

 was a small dog belonging to the ostler, not too 

 well fed, and, out of love for him, this old bird — for 

 he had been there twenty years— levied contribu- 

 tions on his mistress's best customers. The ostler 

 married ; in a fortnight he had to go through the 

 greatest of earthly trials : his wife died. What 

 could the poor fellow do ? What should any of us 

 do at such a time ? He went every morning at his 

 breakfast hour to the cemetery, some half-mile 

 distant, to look at his wife's grave. The dog and 

 raven went also ; but he could not bear this long, 

 and consequently obtained a situation some forty 

 miles distant, but was not able to take his dog 

 at first. The dog and raven, after his departure, as 

 long as the dog was there, went alone every 

 morning at the accustomed hour to the cemetery and 

 stood reverently beside the grave of the poor 

 fellow's wife. These facts could be attested by 

 many of the townspeople. — F. B. M. 



Does Water expand on becoming Ice? — 

 When a bottle of water is frozen, the bottle is 

 usually burst. Hitherto this has been explained by 

 the assertion that the water on solidifying suddenly 

 expands. M. Barthelemy, one of the professsors in 

 the Lyceum of Pau, denies this explanation. In a 

 memoir which he has written on the crystallization 

 of water, he alleges that bursting of the bottle is 

 caused by the disengagement of a large quantity of 

 gas — hitherto in solution — by the water at the 

 moment of its solidification. It is alleged in 

 support of this that if a bottle of water be placed 

 outside a window in frosty weather, it will be ob- 

 served that the rupture takes place at the hottest 

 side, viz., that next the window. Some of our cor- 

 respondents must have made experiments on this 

 point, and we shall be glad to hear what they have 

 got to say to M. Barthelemy's opinion. — Scientific 

 Opinion. 



Little Mackerel. — Can any of your readers 

 account for the mackerel being rarely found off the 

 Barmouth coast as large as the mackerel usually 

 seen in London, eight inches being about the 

 average length of the fish there, and these are 

 abundant ?-F. B. S. 



Are Certain Epidemic Diseases caused by 

 Infusoria? — I have made experiments on myself, 

 in a state of health, in order to ascertain if a diet 

 exclusively vegetable or animal influences the de- 

 velopment of those infusoria in the fseces. These 

 experiments, which gave negative results, have 

 since acquired vast importance. Suffering, some 

 months later, from a violent attack of cholera, I 

 again studied those faecal matters, eight days after 

 the commencement of the attack. I then found in 

 them, at the moment of their expulsion, myriads of 

 Bacteria, and of Vibriones, linear and chained, 

 many of the latter having seven rings. I found also 

 Spirillum volutans, Monads, and Cercomonas 

 crassicauda. This observation, when compared with 

 those preceding, is important ; but it becomes still 

 more so by a third inquiry which I have made. 

 Two months after the commencement of my disease, 



