Sept. 1, 1S69.] 



IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



209 



But to return to the more sombre weeds, after 

 this long digression. 



The common Wrack is another member of the 

 fucus tribe, and there is not a child who has been 

 at the seaside but knows this seaweed, aud has 

 probably tried some experiments with it in the 

 frightening line on a nervous nurse or youuger 

 sister, by slyly throwing a handful of its dark air- 

 vessels into the fire. 



It is easily distinguished by these same air-ves- 

 sels on the fronds, and a midrib which runs up the 

 centre of the frond, although there is another algea 

 very like it, the Fucus nodosus, but in this last the 

 midrib is wanting. 



The Wrack is to be met with on every coast. It 

 is the most common, and I may add the most useful, 

 of all seaweeds. It covers the rocks at the Mum- 

 bles, and lines the beach with a dark fringe of 

 brown all along Carmarthen Bay ; I made its 

 acquaintance there early in life, and ; having been 

 told by an old sailor on the sands to carry a basket- 

 ful home, and put it on the kitchen fire " when the 

 cook had turned her back," like a good, obedient 

 little girl, followed his directions. Cook was dishing 

 up when I entered her domain, and stared at my 

 unexpected appearance ; but, thinking I had come 

 in late from the beach, and wished to place my 

 basket in the kitchen, turned her back to deposit a 

 couple of fowls on the dresser, when into the fire 

 went the " Bladder-wrack." Poor cook ! the heat 

 of the kitchen, and sundry cordials which she took 

 for " the spasms," had made her nerves weak ; she 

 gave a loud scream as the wrack exploded, and let 

 the dish, fowls and all, drop on the floor. I scam- 

 pered off in mortal terror, and dined, I remember, 

 that day iu a lumber room on bread and water, 

 mentally blessing the old sailor for his sage advice. 



The Scotch and Irish are much better acquainted 

 with the valuable properties of this seaweed jthan 

 the Welsh are ; they use the " Kelp-ware " and 

 "Black-tang" (as they term it) on their farms and 

 potato-gardens — it makes capital manure ; but in 

 Wales it is allowed [to dry upon the shore, wasting 

 its iodine on the desert air. Darwin, writing of this 

 fucus at Tierra del Fuego, says that it has saved 

 many a ship from being wrecked on that most dan- 

 gerous coast, by marking out the sunken rocks to 

 which it clings. It floats like a buoy on the surface 

 of the water, rendering useful service to navigators. 



When looking for seaweeds and sea anemones, I 

 always make a practice of poking up everything in 

 the shape of shell that comes in my way. I bring 

 home "a vast amount of rubbish," doubtless, as a 

 person once, more truthfuly than politely, told me ; 

 still I find many grains of wheat in the chaff. I 

 assure you it does well for the experienced and 

 scientific who have a good collection to pass by 

 with a shrug of mild contempt the ignorant health- 

 seeking, sand-grubbing mortal who carries a heavy 



wallet, but depend on it the best way to gain enjoy- 

 ment and instruction at the seashore is to bring 

 home all you find, then study, class, and arrange 

 them in your own den. There are many useful in- 

 expensive books to be had which will aid the young 

 student, but I very strongly advise people to use 

 their own eyes, watch the living specimens, note 

 down all they observe, and then compare their ex- 

 perience with the knowledge recorded by others. 



Helen E. Watney. 



ZOOLOGY. 



The Scallop (Pecten ope rcularis).— As a proof 

 of the tenacity of life possessed by this species, a 

 fisherman assured me that he once put a quantity 

 in a bag into a cupboard aud forgot them, till, after 

 the lapse of a week, turning them out he found them 

 alive. — "A Year at the Shore." 



The Eeathee. Star (Comatula rosacea). — Li in- 

 fancy the Feather star is seated at the extremity of 

 a long slender jointed stalk, attached at its lower 

 end, whence it rises erect, like a plant. Indeed the 

 whole animal, in this condition, with its cup-like 

 base and elegantly incurving arms, seated on its tall 

 stem, has so close a resemblance of outline to a 

 flower, that the fossil specimens, which are very 

 numerous, and of large size, are known as Lily- 

 stones, and technically as Encrinites, which word 

 has the same allusion. After a while the radiating 

 portion, or flower, separates from the stalk, and 

 swims freely, contracting its arms to give the im- 

 pulse, in the manner of a Medusa. — P. H. Gosse, "At 

 the Shored 



Wonders oe the Deep.— One haul of our 

 dredge in the soft warm oozy chalk mud off the 

 North of Scotland brought up from a depth of 500 

 fathoms upwards of forty specimens of vitreous 

 sponges. Many of these were new to science, and 

 some of them resembled closely the beautiful 

 " Venus's flower-basket " of the Philippines, while 

 among them were probably two species of 

 Hyalonema, the strange "glass-rope sponge" of 

 Japan. Eour specimens of this wonderfu new form 

 of vitreous sponge were brought up in this haul. 

 They were loaded with their glairy sarcode, and 

 had evidently been buried in the ooze nearly to the 

 lip. — Prof. JF. Thomson, in Ann. Nat. Hist. 



Curious Egg.— I have in my possession a very 

 curious variety of the Yellow-hammer's egg ; it is 

 not more than half the size of the Gold-crest's egg, 

 of a dirty white, mottled over with yellowish buff, 

 and spotted at the small end with ash colour. It 

 was taken by a friend of mine from a nest which 

 contained four eggs; the remaining three were all of 

 the usual colour.—/. JF., Brighton. 



