124 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[June 1, 186S. 



stored up in the cotyledons and the albumen 

 enough food to nourish the young plant for a con- 

 siderable time. This food consists chiefly of starch, 

 •which being insoluble is not yet in a fit state for 

 absorption. As soon, however, as growth begins 

 a gelatinous substance called diastase is formed in 

 the seed, and this acting upon the starch gradually 

 converts it into gum'and sugar; these being both 

 soluble, are absorbed by the young plant, which 

 grows quickly on such nutritious food. 



When this supply of maternal food (as it may not 

 inappropriately be called) is exhausted, and the 

 young plant has to obtain all its food from the soil, 

 it very often looks sickly, and becomes yellow; and 

 this has been called by some of our old farmers — 

 somewhat poetically though very truly — "the young 

 plant pining for its mother." It is not our desire 

 now to tire our readers with preaching and moraliz- 

 ing, but we should be blind indeed if we failed to 

 see that there are prefigurations and similes in 

 Nature ; and that not the least beautiful and ap- 

 propriate simile is that which likens Spring to child- 

 hood, when all Nature appears innocently beautiful, 

 and the young leaves and young flowers are begin- 

 ning the work of their life, which will only have its 

 full completion in the golden fruits of Autumn. 

 And we cannot close this paper without calling to 

 mind one other thought that is suggested by the 

 phenomena of Spriug. In Autumn we are sorry to 

 see the leaves falling and the flowers fading, but we 

 rejoice to know that we shall only lose them for a 

 time. So when our autumn of life shall come, we 

 may take comfort from the recollection that for us, 

 as well as for the flowers, there will be a new spring 

 when the winter of death is past. 



Mohberley, Kmitsford. Robert Holland. 



THE GOSSAMER. 



/~\N a bright calm day, about the middle of last 

 ^-^ October, the Gossamer was in flight on the 

 South Downs, and in the afternoon the ground was 

 covered, as at Lougbhorough a little later, with "a 

 shining veil."* The spiders were in great num- 

 bers, of a dark colour, and of different sizes, but 

 not more so than might be accounted for by a 

 diversity of age or sex : a few were secured with a 

 piece of web for further examination, and they may 

 now, perhaps, afford some particulars to meet 

 Mr. Mott's inquiry, "what is the power" which 

 drives the spider through the air ? It has been held 

 that the Gossamer is the young of the common 

 garden spider, but a close examination will prove 

 this to be a mistake. The general form of both is 

 the same; but the Gossamer, unlike the other, is 

 fitted out at all points as an aeronaut; the legs, 

 furnished at their extremities with combs, but 



* See Scibnce-Gossip for last March, p. 51. 



reduced in their proportions, and brought nearer 

 to the form of hooks, and the hook underneath and 

 between them largely developed; the part of the 

 abdomen near the spinning apparatus, and among 

 and upon the spinnerets, furnished with stiff curved 

 hairs, like grapples, to give the adventurous tra- 

 veller a firm seat upon the web. But it is in the 

 form of the spinneret itself the chief difference 

 lies. It is a double, not a single cone. The lower 

 one, a strong muscular-looking sac, is surmounted 

 by a smaller cone pierced by numerous tubes, from 

 which the threads of the web may be projected, by 

 the contraction of the sac, at the will of the insect. 



Fig. 112. Spinneret of Gossamer, a, Tubes ; J, Hairs; 

 c, Sac; d, Cone, + 300. 



Fig. 1 13. Another Spinneret of Gossamer, a. Tubes; 

 b, Hairs; c, Sac, + 300. 



Fig. 114. Claw of Gossamer x 300. 



The subject of the flight of the Gossamer has 

 been often discussed, and there are some very 



