March 1, 1SG9.J 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



57 



£ inch across the disc, with tentacles nearly 1 inch 

 long, by far the largest I have seen. It bears all the 

 characteristics of its parent, which died soon after 

 the young one was born. The young of this species 

 have thriven better with me than the adults : is it 

 because they were injured in obtaining them ? Decay 

 seemed to commence at the base, which usually 

 showed a small puncture in the centre. 



Daisies have been produced by scores. One has 

 two discs. By the by, I have a very interesting 

 bellis that does not appear to be named as a variety. 

 It is wholly burnt umber* disc and tentacles. It 

 has not produced young, although tyriensis, stellata, 

 and two other varieties have all done so. 



I have had the variety brunnea of A. dianthus 

 with a perfectly-formed young one budding from 

 the column close to the base, but the individual 

 passed out of my possession after I had had it a 

 few days. 



Of the habits of some of the anemones a few 

 words may be said. A very fine specimen of the 

 scarlet-fringed anemone (S. miniatd), with a eKsk 

 2 inches in diameter, usually when hungry throws 

 out the interior circle of tentacles to a considerable 

 length, and one or two to 2 inches or more, until 

 they become so pale as to be nearly invisible. Food 

 placed upon the tip of one of these elongated 

 tentacles is instantly drawn towards the mouth ; for 

 lliniata is a gourmand, and ready for any food at 

 all times and seasons. The Snake-locked anemone, 

 S. viduata, in the evening extends its column to 5£ 

 inches, from the summit of which its delicate 

 " cloudy " tentacles droop gracefully over the little 

 cave-dwelling anemones (S. troglodytes), spreading 

 their little stars of mottled tentacles upon the 

 surface of the shingle below. Others of the same 

 species {troglodytes), one with an ochre disc and 

 opaque white tentacles, and the black and white 

 melanoleuca, peer from their crannies in search of 

 the food they prefer not to seek in the daylight. 



A. dianthus, you will say, has a tolerably " capa- 

 cious mouth," when I tell you that it swallowed a 

 gravity ball half an inch in diameter; but not finding 

 it so dainty a morsel as it supposed, was glad, after 

 keeping it some hours, to give it up again. My 

 experience of the Sagartiadce is that they are free 

 feeders, taking their food readily, and like to receive 

 it regularly— say once a week,— all of them swallow- 

 ing quickly. I give mine oyster, sole, or raw beef, 

 and they seem to thrive well. 



Anthea I cannot get to look well or live long, but 

 I do not despair of doing so as I gain more experience. 



* Since writing this I have received a smaller one from 

 Mr. King, of London. I think it is the same that is men- 

 tioned in Mr. P. H. Gosse's.book on Anemones, as having been 

 found by Mr. H. Owen, of Bristol, at Ilfracombe. My largest 

 specimen came from the same place—" of a dark self colour 

 chocolate or umber-brown." 



All anemones after food repay the attention given 

 them, spreading out their beautiful blooms among 

 the seaweeds with such a persistency of beauty. 



" An emanation of the indwelling life, 

 A visible token of the upholding love, 

 That are the soul of this wide universe." 



S. parasitica is a great feeder ; almost any kin d 

 of food meets its palate, and it does not mind how 

 often it receives it. The Vestlet (Cereanthus Lloydii) 

 blooms in quiet beauty at the door of its glass house, 

 through the windows of which you can see its vest- 

 ments minus the sand. And so here, more than a 

 hundred miles from the sea, I have some little rock- 

 pools that for variety of life rival those of nature ; 

 for, as a friend of mine truly says, here "art im- 

 proves upon nature," bringing together many rare 

 and beautiful forms, that to be seen in their native 

 haunts must be sought for far and wide. 



G. Shekriff Tye. 



Handsicorth, Birmingham. 



LIGHT ATTRACTING INSECTS, &c. 



TN the last number of Science-Gossip a corre- 

 -*- spondent raises the question why many animals, 

 especially insects, are attracted by light, particularly 

 that of a candle or other flame. The idea has some- 

 times occurred to me, though it may appear rather 

 a fanciful one, that possibly the insect might regard 

 the flame as light shining from an aperture through 

 which it might make its escape, somewhat as 

 children imagine the stars to be pinholes in the sky. 

 If a room were thoroughly darkened, with the ex- 

 ception of a small opening, such as a key-hole, 

 through which the outer daylight was allowed to 

 enter, such an aperture would appear from within, 

 by contrast, almost as bright as the flame of a candle, 

 and any winged insects enclosed in such room would 

 be pretty certain to direct their flight to the opening. 

 Moths in a room are probably under a sense of being 

 lost and confined, and as bees hurry up and down 

 the window, so nocturnal lepidoptera knock against 

 the ceiling, or dash into the candle-flame, perhaps 

 equally with the impulse to escape. 



Insects seem to be under a fixed impression that 

 the direction of the light is "the way out." An 

 uncorked vial may be almost filled with flies if it is 

 laid on the table with the mouth turned away from 

 the window, the idea of a back exit being apparently 

 beyond their capacity, but let the position of the 

 vial be reversed, and in a few seconds it will be 

 tenantless. In collecting provisions for the frogs, 

 &c, in my vivarium, a long test tube is often used 

 for the reception of flies, and after the tube has been 

 laid down, and the insects collected at one end, I 

 have often been amused on reversing it at the steady 

 procession that takes place to the opposite extremity, 

 where the incarcerated insects struggle and thrust 



