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HAJADWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Aug. 1, 1S68. 



Ebony or Heben.— The beautiful black wood 

 which we know by the name of Ebony, is the inner 

 part of the trunk, the heart-wood, of a great many 

 species of Biospyros— large trees, natives chiefly 

 of the Tropics ; therefore I cannot quite agree with 

 your correspondent Mr. Walter W. Skeat, in 

 thinking that it was the " cursed juice " described 

 by the kingly ghost at Elsinore, seeing more espe- 

 cially that not one of the genus producing ebony- 

 wood yields a poisonous extract. The gaub, as the 

 Biospyros embryopteris is termed by the natives, 

 beai's a very astringent fruit, somewhat like an egg 

 in shape, and before it ripens a gum is extracted 

 from it, which the fishing tribes value highly as a 

 coating for their nets, because it renders the meshes 

 stronger ; but it is not hurtful. The D. Virginiana, 

 Date-plum of the United States, belongs to this 

 family (there are about four species found in 

 America), and the Kaki of the Celestial Empire is 

 another ; both these trees bear edible fruit. The 

 brilliant red apple of the Kaki makes a very de- 

 licious plum-flavoured sweetmeat. I cannot, how- 

 ever, say much in praise of the rough-tasting yellow 

 American berries, though the Southerners do make 

 a kind of beer from them. The best Ebony comes 

 from a tree found in the Mauritius. — Helen E. 

 Watney, Hambledon. 



Gentians.— My appeal for winter-greens was so 

 kindly responded to, that I am emboldened to make 

 one more request. Will any one send me fresh 

 specimens of Gentiana campestris, G. Pneumonanthe, 

 or Cicendia filiformis ? I can offer Gen. Amurella 

 and G. germanica to any who may want them. — 

 James Britten, High Wycombe. 



Scarecrows. — My garden is a favourite place 

 for Blackbirds and Thrushes, as well as a good place 

 for fruit ; and they seem too knowing in the present 

 day to care much for the scarecrows, &c. mentioned 

 in your last number. Indeed, with us they care 

 very little for human ones. They will just fly into 

 a near bush, and chatter and scold till one's back is 

 turned. As to frightening them away with a gun it 

 is perhaps effectual, but very bad for the garden 

 and their happy singing. I generally net the 

 currant-trees, and yet they will get underneath in 

 the most determined way ; but still with care and 

 good management one can get plenty of fruit, and 

 yet let the poor birds have a share. It only pays 

 them for the good they do. If we want to keep 

 them away from any particular spot, we generally 

 hang up one or two common looking-glasses by a 

 string. They keep turning round and reflecting 

 the light and other objects in apparent motion ; and 

 this I have found for some years a more effectual 

 plan for keeping the birds at a proper distance than 

 any other I have tried. — E. T. S. 



Ostriches. — Opening a volume of All the Year 

 Bound for 1S60, not long ago, I came upon a paper 

 in which is detailed the writer's experience in regard 

 to Ostriches "in their own deserts." In speaking 

 of their nidification he makes the following state- 

 ment : — " The female arranges the eggs (a score or 

 two dozen) in a triangle, with the point in front of 

 ber when she is sitting. Two or three of them, 

 therefore, do not get sufficiently warmed by her 

 body ; and these unhatched eggs she breaks to 

 provide food for the young birds during the first few 

 days after they have left their shells." This state- 

 ment of the young Ostriches being fed on eggs 

 provided by their own mother is so completely sui 



generis, that ] should be much obliged to any cor- 

 respondent experienced in the ways of Ostriches 

 who would confirm or refute it. I think, too, it 

 would interest others of your readers, who are fond 

 of ornithology. — W. W. Spicer, Clifton. 



Gold-Eish Hatching. —Will W. 0. (Science- 

 Gossip, vol. iv. p.'IGo) kindly tell us of what the 

 regular supplies of food consisted which be so suc- 

 cessfully gave to his gold fish ; and also what plants 

 be found to thrive best in the aquarium ? — X., Edg- 

 baston. 



Onions and Epidemics. — In the spring of 1S19 

 I was in charge of one hundred men on shipboard, 

 with the cholera among the men. We had onions, 

 which a number of the men ate freely. Those who 

 did so were soon attacked, and nearly all died. As 

 soon as I made this discovery their use was for- 

 bidden. After mature reflection I came to the con- 

 clusion that onions should never be eaten during 

 the prevalence of epidemics, for the reason that 

 they absorb the virus and communicate the disease, 

 and that the proper use for them is sliced and placed 

 in the sick room, and replaced with fresh ones every 

 few hours. It is a well-established fact that onions 

 will extract the poison of snakes : this I personally 

 know. Some kinds of mud will do the same. 

 After maintaining the foregoing opinion for eighteen 

 years, I have found the following well attested : 

 Onions placed in the room where there is small-pox 

 will blister and decompose with great rapidity; not 

 only so, but will prevent the spread of the disease. 

 I think as a disinfectant they have no equal, when 

 properly used • but keep them out of the stomach. 

 if need be, the foregoing (which I have greatly 

 abbreviated) can be attested on oath. — John B. 

 Wolff, in " Scientific American" March 14. 



Petroleum as an Insecticide. — The following 

 paragraph from the Union Medicate, June 27, and 

 reprinted in a London medical journal, may 

 supply the wants of L. V. H., in Science-Gossip 

 of July, 18GS. Petroleum oil possesses the highest 

 efficacy as a destroyer of all kinds of insects injurious 

 to plants or animals, and the less purified, and 

 consequently the cheaper it is, the better. Thirty 

 parts should be mixed with 1,000 of water, and ap- 

 plied where required. So also vermin of houses may 

 be destroyed by introducing into the holes or cracks 

 a few drops of petroleum. — B. O. 



Ants and Aphides. — On tbe afternoon of the 

 17th May, while lying down on the grass in 

 "Meads," I disturbed an ants' nest, where were a 

 number of aphides, and the ants immediately began 

 to take them up in their mouths and carry them 

 away, but when they got a little quieter I several 

 times distinctly saw an ant come up to one of the 

 aphides, and just touch it with its jaws, and then 

 the aphis put out a drop of something that looked 

 like clear water, which the ant drank, and then 

 went on with whatever he was doing. 1 have often 

 heard it asserted that ants keep aphides as cows, and 

 milk them, but never actually saw it done before. — 

 E. B. II. B., Winchester. 



Does the Robin change the Colour of its 

 Plumage ? — This morning, in my garden at Hamp- 

 stead, 1 saw one with the plumage nearly that of the 

 brown linnet, but on the breast slightly more 

 yellow. There could be no mistake about its being 

 a robin, from the peculiar movements of head and 

 wing when on the ground.—/. II., July 20. 



