Aug. 1, 1868.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



189 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Early Flowering in Spring, 1SGS. — It has 

 been asserted in your pages and elsewhere that the 

 past spring was an unusually early season. On 

 the other hand I find that there are parties who 

 question this statement. As I have for the last 

 five years kept a tolerably accurate record of the 

 flowering of plants about Belfast, perhaps it might 

 be of interest to give a brief summary comparing 

 this season with former ones. The table given 

 below has been carefully compiled from my notes 

 of the first coming into flower of 271 plants, of 

 which S appear in February, 30 in March, 71 in 

 April, 61 in May, and 101 in June ; it shows that 

 there was on the average of the whole 271 species 

 an advance of fifteen days in the present year, as 

 compared with 1867, which was a late season. 

 Further, it will appear from my table that not only 

 did our plants flower this year sooner than last year, 

 but also that they were earlier than in any year 

 since my record was commenced. As compared 

 with the earliest of the last five years the result is 

 that the spring of 1868 was six days in advance. 

 The results are given separately for each month 

 and it will be seen that the greatest degree of 

 forwardness of vegetation was in the earlier months 

 of the year. This no doubt is due to the very mild 

 weather we enjoyed during last winter. As the 

 summer came on the distinction in favour of this 

 year became less, and as far as I have observed in 

 the present month, our July plants are not earlier 

 than usual. The excessive drought and heat we 

 have lately experienced rather retard than forward 

 the flowering of plants. Table showing the flower- 

 ing of plants in 1868, as compared with 1867, and 

 also with the earliest of the last five years : — 



I may remark that in compiling the above table I 

 have noticed only common plants, those which 

 owing to their frequency, I believed I had seen at 

 or very near their first appearance. Of course I 

 don't pretend that the estimate founded on my 

 notes is critically correct in every respect : that 

 could not be, unless one noted each species in t lie 

 same spot year after year, as plants flower earlier in 

 some localities than they do in others. But when 

 the comparison extends over so many species we 

 may assume that the general result will be sub- 

 stantially correct. The rather small number of 

 plants (61) observed in May was owing to my in- 

 ability to be out as much as usual during that 

 mouth. — S. A. Stewart, Belfast. 



Caddis-cases. — We think it advisable to inform 

 our readers that the appearance of an article in the 

 Popular Science Review on Caddis-flies, simulta- 

 neously with one on Caddis-cases, by another 

 gentleman, in our own pages, was not premeditated, 

 nor could any opposition have been designed, since 

 neither the authors of the papers nor the editor of 

 either journal were admitted to the secrets of the 

 others' intentions, and all were alike surprised at the 

 denouement. 



Honey.— Can any reader of Science-Gossip 

 inform me how to prevent honey fermenting, or 

 to cheek fermentation when once commenced ? — 

 E. K. B. 



Spider Poison. — Apropos of the discussion on 

 the biting capabilities of English spiders. A lady 

 tells me that about thirty years ago, when she was 

 living at Clapton, her nurse was amusing the chil- 

 1 dren one evening by causing a rather large spider 

 1 to run round and round the table. The insect 

 getting tired of the performance, sprang upon her 

 bare arm, and inflicted a bite that caused so alarm- 

 ing a swelling of the limb, that the doctor was 

 called in, and applied poultices to relieve the 

 wound.— B. H. iV. B. 



Eel Freak.— On Tuesday, the 30th of June last, 

 as my two little boys were rowing me to Monas- 

 terevan in a canvas boat on the river Barrow, much 

 to our astonishment, a large eel jumped into the 

 boat. It was getting dark at the time, and there 

 was a small flood in the river. We can only account 

 for it by supposing that he was running on the top 

 of the water, and was struck by an oar, and in his 

 fright gave himself up to us. The oldest fisherman 

 on the river has never heard of an eel doing so 

 before. He proved to be a very pleasant guest at 

 our table next day. — Thomas B. Harpur. 



Dreissena. — If Dreissena polymorpha, inquired 

 after by T. G. P. in Science- Gossip for July 

 is the Mytilus polymorphus of Turton, I can assure 

 him it breeds abundantly in Staffordshire. I have 

 found it in clusters, and of various sizes, both in 

 the river Sow, between Stafford and the Infirmary, 

 and in the canals nearer to Acton Hill and Puckers- 

 cote, running out of the same river. In the year 

 1842 I received young ones from streams near 

 Exmouth, but to what attached I don't know. In 

 the Sow I have taken them out of the river affixed 

 by a byssus to the stems of the Willow and Water 

 Mints, in any part where the bank did not slope- 

 down gradually. I have one or two of the young 

 at T. G. P.'s service still, if of any use, though 

 seven years old. — L. 31. Pratten. 



Parasites on Caterpillar. — We have received 

 a caterpillar, from some correspondent without name, 

 sprinkled with elongated white dots, of which the 

 following is an explanation : — " The white dots on 

 the sides of the body (towards the headj of the 

 caterpillar of Geometra proclromaria are the eggs of 

 an Ichneumon deposited on the surface of the skin, 

 to which they are very firmly glued. The young 

 grubs are already hatched, and I extracted one of 

 minute size which had already bored its way into 

 the body of the caterpillar through the thin skin 

 close to the end of the egg, the extremity of the 

 body being still visible at the orifice of the hole by 

 which it had entered."—/. 0. W. 



Gold Fish.— Can you give me any explanation 

 of the cause of gold and silver fish, after being in 

 an aquarium for a short time, going black in patches, 

 resulting in an unsteady motion in swimming, ending 

 in death, and whether there is any remedy try which 

 to preserve them ? — E. Y. 



Dreissena polymorpha. — In answer to your 

 correspondent T. G. P. in this month's number, I 

 beg to state that I have found Dreissena polymorpha 

 in the Isis at Oxford, near to the confluence of the 

 Chenvell and that river.— W. Ilambrough. 



