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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[May 1, 1SG9. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



"What's in a Name ?— Your correspondent of 

 last month will, I think, allow that I can furnish her 

 with a better name for the Hydrangea than that of 

 "Jenkins," who evidently had not taken his degree, 

 even in that ungoverned language, gardeners' Latin. 

 Cottagers in the Midland Counties have repeatedly 

 pointed out to me the pink variety in their little 

 gardens, with great pride, as "high -geraniums," 

 and it really bears no very remote resemblance, when 

 liowering low, to the giant pink geranium, with its 

 handsome spike of bloom. Among local names, can 

 any one furnish au explanation of the origin or 

 derivation of the once - universal name in West 

 Cornwall for the lizard, " padgey-poto " ? It is now 

 dying out before railways and cheap newspapers, with 

 a number of other charming peculiarities, but years 

 ago it was a common thing to hear expressed an 

 aversion for " quilHns and padgey-pows " — i.e., frogs 

 and lizards.— E. H. W. 



Thrips. — When they infest plants with closely 

 sessile or imbricated foliage, they otten seem, among 

 the thick-set leaves, to escape both tobacco-smoke 

 and snuff, both of which I tried in vain on some 

 plants of the star saxifrage ; but got rid of the pest 

 at last by occasionally putting the plants overhead in 

 water for some hours. The insects will soon come 

 to the surface, and even walk and hop thereupon ; 

 so it is as well to sprinkle a little snuff, which spreads 

 into a film which soon kills the thrips. This method 

 prevents their taking refuge in the soil, as I believe 

 they do from tobacco-smoke, and may be used with 

 plants to which the wet sponge (I have often used 

 a wet brush) could not be applied so conveniently. 

 Why barbarize the word into t/irip, any more than 

 clip off the * of cyuips, &c. ?— H. B. Bi'den. 



Local Name of Butterfly. — Comparatively 

 few of our butterflies have been so far distinguished 

 one from another by the vulgar eye as to have 

 any name applied to them. 1 find, however, that 

 rhe Peacock {Vanessa Io) is in some parts of 

 .Devonshire called the "Prince George." It would 

 be curious to ascertain the origin of this. Could it 

 be carried back to the days of Queen Ann, when 

 there was a Prince George somewhat notorious ? 

 The Georges of more recent date belonging to the 

 royal house have been, with but one exception, I 

 1 hink, Princes of Wales, and known more gene- 

 rally, therefore, under that title.—/. R. S. C. 



Association of Animals. — I conceive that one 

 of the chief uses of your excellent periodical is that 

 it affords a medium of communication for young 

 naturalists seeking for information on any point. 

 With this feeling, I venture to ask your readers for 

 any information they can give me regarding the 

 strange alliances or associations of various animals, 

 as in the case of the pea-crab living with mussels, 

 &c. ; the fishes seen by Mr. Peach, Dr. Colling- 

 wood, and others, that live under the disc of the sea 

 anemone ; the worm found by Mr. Lord in the 

 mouth of a British Columbian limpet, &c. I should 

 also be glad of information regarding cases of alli- 

 ance for offence or defence, as in the case of the 

 sword-fish and the thresher, which combine to 

 attack the whale. — 0. E. B. 



Cat-Haws. — In answer to Mr. Ranson's query 

 on cat-haws, I forward you one or two extracts. 

 Brockett's " Glossary of North Country Words " :— 



" Cat-haws. — The fruit of the whitethorn, perhaps 

 named from eates food, because they may be eaten 

 as such by human beings. When large they are 

 called lull-haws?'' Johnston's "Natural History of 

 the Eastern Borders " says the fruit is called haws. 

 The name is derived from the Anglo-Saxon haia, 

 which signifies a hedge. In 1561, to defend the 

 villages of North Durham against the raids of the 

 Scotch moss-troopers, hedges were ordered to be 

 planted around the " little closes or crofts " lying 

 hard by the village, and the hedge was to be " a 

 dooble set of quicksett and some ashes." There is 

 further lore on the subject in the book. — B. Y. G. 



Cat-haws (pp. 70, 93, 91). — This name is also 

 applied to the fruit of the Hawthorn in the north of 

 Lincolnshire. — James Britten, High Wycombe. 



Red Grouse. — Does the Red Grouse (Lagopus 

 Scoticus) pair, or is it polygamous ? In Mudie's 

 "British Birds " we are informed that they do not 

 pair, whilst the Rev. J. C. Atkinson, in his "British 

 Birds' Eggs and Nests," as distinctly states the 

 contrary. — H. C. Sargent. 



Bakbary Ape. — Are there any individuals of this 

 species of monkey living at Gibraltar in a wild 

 state now? The "Guide" to the Zoological 

 Gardens for 1S6G says that there were only three 

 alive there in that year. — H. C. Sargent. 



Pocket [Collecting-box. — Mr. Letchford, the 

 celebrated match-maker, has brought out a new box 

 for the " Cachou aromatise " for smokers. He calls 

 it the Prince of Wales's. These boxes appear to me 

 admirably fitted for the collector of small insects, 

 shells, &c, as they are so readily opened and closed. 

 Larger ones might be advantageously made on the 

 same principle. — Charles Adcock, M. JR. C.S., Jersey. 



Tennyson (p. 91).— "J. R. S. C.V'queryreminds 

 me of another passage in " In Memoriam," of the 

 interpretation of which 1 am doubtful. What is 

 " the blue sea-bird of March " ? In "The Brook," 

 as set to music, a misprint occurs which mars the 

 sense : instead of " willow, weed, and mallow," it 

 should be " willow-weed and mallow," Epilobium 

 hirsutum being intended by the former name.— 

 James Britten, High Wycombe. 



Cold St. Valentine's. — The St. Catherine's 

 (Canada) Times says.: — "The 14th of February will 

 long be remembered as an extraordinary day. The 

 whole couutry became an immense glacier, and the 

 eye was regaled with delicate fringes of icicles 

 pendent from fence rails, housetops, and the 

 branches of trees. The more tender varieties of 

 fruit and ornamental trees are badly injured in every 

 direction— literally smashed down with the weight 

 of ice formed upon them during the night. Peach- 

 trees have suffered most, many of these being 

 entirely ruined. About six years ago we had just 

 such another spell of weather, and, strangely 

 enough, there was au abundant crop of fruit the 

 following season, notwithstanding the destruction 

 of many choice trees. A Montreal paper states 

 the fall of snow this winter at no less than 118 

 inches." 



A pining Tortoise. — A friend has a tortoise he 

 cannot get to eat or drink anything. What must be 

 done with it ? 1 am aware the tortoise will live during 

 the winter without food, but now (April) it must 

 surely be time for it to break, its long fast. — 

 J.H. 



