140 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[June 1, 1869. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Abnormal Dandelions. — How very provoking ! 

 Do not the text-books tell us that a " scape "fs a 

 leafless, branchless flower stalk? And yet one 

 correspondent sends us a scape of Dandelion with 

 a well-marked leaf projecting from it, and another 

 (W. W. S.) sends us one with a second head of 

 flowers projecting at an acute angle from the main 

 stalk. The latter case must be set down as an in- 

 stance of prolification of the inflorescence. Erom 

 the axil of one of the bracts has proceeded a secon- 

 dary scape, hence the prolification. The peccant 

 bract, moreover, is at some distance below the 

 others, which are too regular in their behaviour to 

 associate with their eccentric brother. — 31. T. M. 



Parroquet Breeding.— A friend of mine has a 

 pair of Parroquets or Love-birds : the lien lays a 

 quantity of eggs in the season, but when she has 

 been sitting for a short time her health fails, and 

 she nearly dies. Would any of your correspondents 

 be good enough to inform me what is the food on 

 which they should be fed? Bread and milk, biscuit, 

 egg, &c, have been tried, but to no purpose ; they 

 have refused everything thus far except canary and 

 rape seed.— T. B. N. 



An Interloper. — On looking at my cabinet of 

 moths a few days ago, [ was surprised to find the 

 head and throat of a Death's-head moth covered 

 with what at first I supposed to be a vegetable 

 growth, which extended beyond the tips of the 

 antennae ; but, on closer examination, it proved to 

 be hair from the breast of the moth, eaten off by a 

 maggot or gentle nearly an inch long. The moth 

 was given to me last year by a friend the day after 

 it emerged from the chrysalis, when I killed it by 

 sowsing it very liberally with benzole, which I am 

 told is a certain preservative ; the case also contains 

 nearly an ounce of camphor. 1 am greatly puzzled 

 to know how the maggot got into the case. 1 have 

 mounted some of the hair, and find it makes a 

 beautiful object for the microscope. Should any 

 of your readers like to have some of it, I shall be 

 pleased tosend them a small quantity on receipt of 

 address with stamp. — Alfred Allen, Felstead, Essex. 



Indigenous Trees.— What is understood by the 

 word indigenous ? Summarily it means " to grow 

 spontaneously in any natural soil ;" but what is it 

 to grow spontaneously ? 1. Are we to suppose 

 that the seed or root is a natural production of the 

 soil, which, by the operation of natural laws, pro- 

 duced the first tree or plant ever placed there? 

 This were to suppose mother earth self-endued 

 with the first principles of germination. 2. Or that 

 a tree or shrub, having been planted in a given 

 locality, and the soil being of suitable kind, said 

 tree or shrub will ever after flourish there ? This 

 planting may have been a divine act of creation or 

 of human transportation; seed may have been 

 wafted by wind or by water, or conveyed by animal 

 agency. This would leave us to the conclusion that 

 "indigenous" is only a comparative term, and that 

 once was a period when no tree or shrub existed. 

 Geology does certify this fact, but we have at pre- 

 sent only Scripture to show how the first tree or 

 shrub came into existence. This may be illustrated 

 by a case in point. " Csesar's Commentaries," book 

 v., c. 12, states that the Britons have timber of 

 every kind, as in Gaul, except "fagum " and " abie- 

 tem ;" abietem means the fir, but fagum, which 

 ordinarily means the beech {Fagus sykatica), seems 



misapplied, for, say writers, the beech is indigenous 

 here ; therefore it may mean the sweet chestnut 

 {Castanea vesca). The ancient Britons called the 

 beech ffaicydd, i.e., the bean-tree, because pigs eat 

 the beans thereof; but it will be observed that ffa 

 is the prefix of fagus, and in ~L?&mfaba is a bean. 

 Query, Would Britons apply a Latin name to a tree 

 known to them before the Romans landed ? The 

 word beech is Saxon, bucccm. I may remind your 

 readers that the beech is said to have been recently 

 found, fossilized, in Irish strata. The beech-tree 

 being indigenous here, the box-tree is also said to 

 be indigenous, because found growing wild in 

 Surrey ; the oak-tree, also, among others, and the 

 fir 'f Finns sylvestris) is called indigenous to Scotland. 

 With these examples before us, I wish to ask how 

 many centuries would suffice to give such appearance 

 of home to the habitat of a plant as that it comes to 

 be regarded as indigenous or aboriginal? The 

 subject might be extended to some of the doubtful 

 trees and shrubs mentioned in Scripture, but want 

 of space forbids it at present. — A. Hall. 



Local Name oe Butterflies, etc. — A native of 

 these parts distinguishes between the Fierida, as 

 represented by the " Whites," and the Vanessidce, 

 as far as the Peacock and Red Admiral are con- 

 cerned. The former are "butterflies," the latter 

 " hobhowchins." Garden snails are here called 

 "huddieduddies," a word which seems to express 

 their soft slimy nature. Can any reader supply the 

 derivation of "hobhowchins"? — James Britten, 

 High Wycombe. 



Eood of Tortoise. — The tortoise referred to by 

 " J. H." may have been waiting till more decided 

 summer weather restored its appetite; but, as the 

 kind of tortoise is not named, it may have been sup- 

 plied with unsuitable food. The land tortoise is 

 herbivorous, and a lady who had one in her garden 

 complained to me that it attacked any plant which 

 bore a yellow flower. The water tortoise, often 

 seen in aquaria, is, on the contrary, carnivorous. 

 When I first obtained some a few years ago, being 

 ignorant of their food, I tried them with various 

 plants, but they refused them all. As an experi- 

 ment, I offered a piece of a mutton-chop, and found 

 it much more to their taste, after which I usually 

 supplied them with raw beef, presenting it on the 

 poiut of a wire, but their extreme slowness in 

 making up their mind is rather trying to the 

 patience. — G. Guyon, Ventnor, Isle of Wight, 



Affection Between a Cow and a Pig. — 

 Walking one day in the neighbourhood of Bath 

 accompanied by a dog of the most discursively 

 inquisitive disposition, and whose researches were 

 somewhat noisily pursued, we came to a field where 

 a number of cows were quietly browsing at some 

 distance from the path we followed. In pursuing 

 his investigations " Tip " alarmed a fine porker of 

 some six months old, near the stile by which we 

 were about to leave the field. Not knowing the 

 dog as well as I did, his somewhat rough manners 

 alarmed the pig, who grunted loudly and ran away, 

 pursued by the dog, who tried to explain that he 

 meant no harm. No sooner, however, had the pig 

 shown symptoms of being in clanger than one of 

 the cows at the other side of the field pricked up 

 her cars and trotted rapidly towards the scene of 

 action. The pig, with a grunt of satisfaction, took 

 refuge under her legs; and the cow, keeping a 

 sharp look-out at the dog, devoted herself to calm 

 the alarmed pig by licking it carefully all over. I 



