Nov. 1, 1S69.J 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



247 



Of Obisia I have seen three species : First there 

 is 0. orthodactylum, which is very abundant under 

 stoucs, brickbats, &c, where there is considerable 

 warmth and moisture, and also is of frequent occur- 

 rence in cellars under old woodwork (fig. 219). 



Another species often accompanies this one, but I 

 cannot name it. It has thicker and stronger mandi- 

 bles, is broader across the cephalothorax, aud is 

 much darker in colour. Sometimes its back is of 

 very dark brown hue. 



A third, very large species is marine. It was 

 sent me from Plymouth by C. Stewart, F.L.S., who 

 found it rather abundantly fifty yards below high- 

 water mark, feeding, to the best of his belief, on 

 Podurse and other soft-bodied creatures. In this 

 situation it must be nearly always submerged ; but 

 doubtless the crannies of the rocks which it inhabits 

 always contain a certain amount of air. 



I hoped to have given a figure of this species, but 

 so much space has been already occupied that I 

 forbear. 



Its body is cylindrical, but its nippers are very 

 like those of the Chelifer (see fig. 212, Chelifer 

 Latreillei), and its colour bright chestnut, except 

 the softer parts of the abdomen, which are white. 



It would have been impossible to make the above 

 observations on the habits of these creatures if I 

 had not made abundant use of the cork cells, which 

 the reader will find described in the paper on 

 Podurse (S.-G., 1867), sheet cork of the best descrip- 

 tion, such as is used for lining entomological boxes, 

 being substituted for wood, an improvement for 

 which Dr. Gray, P.P. M.S., deserves the credit, and 

 I strongly recommend them to all micioscopists 

 who desire to know the habits of minute creatures. 



Should any reader of these imperfect notes find 



any pseudoseorpions and be unable to devote much 



attention to them, I need hardly say I will receive 



them most thankfully. 



S. J. M'Intire. 



TROPICAL CLIMBERS. 



ONE of the most striking characteristics of a 

 tropical forest is the almost incredible number 

 of great woody climbers, which everywhere inter- 

 rupt the view and obstruct the path. We of more 

 temperate climes, who are apt at times to use some 

 strong language when we are held back for a 

 moment by a too familiar bramble, or are tripped 

 up by a tenacious clematis, are little aware of the 

 difficulties which beset the traveller in the dense 

 forests of Central and South America. In Europe, 

 it is the trees which give a character to the woods, 

 and we look on the Ivy and the Honeysuckle, the 

 Travellers' Joy, and the Bryony, as delicate fringes 

 on the stout stems and branches of the trees ; but 

 not as an integral portion of the forest itself. The 

 first only of the above-named occasionally attains 



such dimensions as to give a decided character to 

 the surrounding vegetation. It is very different in 

 the forests of Brazil, for example : there the atten- 

 tion is caught not more by the trees, huge and 

 luxuriant though they are, than by the gigantic 

 climbers, which twist and twine and struggle among 

 their branches. The tallest trees are overtopped 

 by them, and they hang down in graceful festoons, 

 or thick cable-like masses, which wave to and fro in 

 the wind. Some, as their points touch mother earth, 

 take fresh root, and thickening by degrees, stand 

 stiff and erect as though they had been tightened 

 artificially ; while others, entangled by the over- 

 hanging boughs spread from side to side, inter- 

 lacing one with another, and at last forming an 

 impenetrable screen, behind which the jaguar lurks, 

 or troops of monkeys sport, safe from the shot of 

 the hunter. So strangely luxuriant is the growth 

 of many, that their embrace is fatal to the tree to 

 which they cling. One in particular, a kind of fig 

 (known by the appropriate name of Matador, or 

 Butcher), not merely strangles the host who has 

 given it support, but as the latter decays, takes its 

 place, aud losing its character as a climber, stands 

 a hollow self-supporting column, where once a tall 

 Mahogany or Courbaril raised its head. 



As may be supposed, these Liane (or Cipos as the 

 Brazilians name them) form a very serious obstacle 

 to the traveller. Many of them, though scarcely 

 thicker than a stout string, require a knife, and a 

 sharp one too ; while others, stouter than a man's 

 arm, must be attacked with the axe, before a pas- 

 sage can be forced. Some are furnished with per- 

 fectly smooth stems, but not a few, armed with stiff 

 prickles and hooks of unpleasant proportions, 

 make cruel work of the clothes and flesh of the un- 

 lucky wanderer. 



Many of these huge webs of nature's own making 

 are only so far ornamental as strange forms and 

 gigantic festoons must always be striking and pic- 

 turesque ; such are species oiPothos, Paullinia, and 

 Aristolochia ; but the great bulk of them lend a 

 wonderful magnificence to the scenery, by the extra- 

 ordinary splendour and quantity of their flowers. 

 Witness the great Bignonias, of which Prof. Lindley 

 says, in his " Vegetable Kingdom " -. " The tropics of 

 either hemisphere arc the chief station of this uoble- 

 looking order, whose trumpet-shaped flowers, from 

 their large size, gay colours, and great abundanca, 

 are the glory of the forests which they inhabit." 

 Scarcely less conspicuous are the Banisterias aud 

 Banhinias, with their gaudy yellow and red 

 corollas. 



Nor are they without their uses : from Calamus 

 Draco we get the well-known dragon's blood, a dark- 

 coloured insipid resin ; to say nothing of the canes 

 so much valued for their flinty hardness and flexible 

 nature. 



Paullinia too {teste Loudon) "affords a we.il- 



