Sept. 1, 1868.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



213 



Wood-borer from Ceylon. — The beetle found 

 alive in " dunnage" at the Docks, and sent by 

 " H. It. W." as coming from Ceylon, appears_to be 

 Sinoxylon conigerum, Gerst acker (described in the 

 Bericht. Verhandl. Akad. Berlin, 1855, and figured 

 in Peters' "Beise nach Mozambique," 1S62), one of 

 the family Bostrichidee, of which a much larger 

 species, -with bright red elytra _ (Bostrichirs eapu- 

 cinus), is a somewhat dubious inhabitant of this 

 country. The Ceylon insect does not appear to 

 be well known, as there is an un-named specimen 

 of it in the Brit. Mus. Coll., labelled " Madagascar" 

 (Bowring) ; and it is not [among the types there 

 deposited of the new species of Coleoptera, from 

 Ceylon, described by Mr. P. Walker in the Ann. 

 and Mag. of Nat. Hist., 184S, although they com- 

 prise more than one insect closely allied to it. 

 There are two European members of the genus 

 Sinoxylon (muricatum and sexdentatuni), and the 

 type-form of the Ceylon species, with antero-lateral 

 thoracic spines, and one short sharp spine in the 

 deilexed part near the apex of each wing-case, ap- 

 pears to be widely spread over the African conti- 

 nent ; very closely allied insects, viz., S. unidenta- 

 tam, S. scapulare, and S. Senegalense, occurring at 

 the Cape of Good Hope, Abyssinia, and elsewhere 

 in it. S. scapulare, according to a type so named 

 in the Brit. Mus., differs from the species now being 

 noticed only in having the upper portion of the 

 elytra lighter in colour, and with the punctuation 

 rather more remote ; characters carried to a greater 

 extent in the smaller S. unidentatum. Most of the 

 members of this family present an extraordinary 

 superficial resemblance to certain of the true 

 Xylophaga, the habits of which, also, are common 

 to them. But there are distinctly/^ points to the 

 tarsi in the Bostrichidee, of which the first is very 

 small ; whereas in the typical Xylophaga there are 

 apparently only four points, the usual fourth joint 

 being obsolete. The larvae, moreover, of the Bos- 

 trichidee have legs, which are wauting in those of 

 the other insects ; and in other respects they ap- 

 proximate to those of the malacodermatous 

 Ptiniice.—E. C. Bye, 7, Park Field, Putney, S.W. 



A cold Companion. — A lady of our family, who 

 resided in Louisiana, was nursing her young child. 

 Every night her sleep was troubled by the strange 

 sensation of a cold, gliding object which sought to 

 draw the milk from her breast. On one occasion she 

 felt the same impression, and it aroused her. She 

 sprang up, summoned her attendants ; a light was 

 brought ; they searched every corner, turned over 

 the bed, and at last discovered the frightful nursling 

 — a serpent of great size and of a dangerous species. 

 The horror which she felt instantly dried up her 

 m\\k.—Michelefs "The Bird." 



Upland Frogs. — Can any of the readers of 

 Science-Gossip inform me how it is that, at 

 this season of the year, on all the hills round 

 here, even though remote from water, the young 

 frogs swarm in as large numbers as in the lowlands 

 by the side of ponds and ditcnes ? Is it possible 

 that such tiny creatures, directly they leave the tad- 

 pole state, can journey in some cases quite half a 

 mile from any water to pass their existence on a 

 common, the grass of which, especially this summer, 

 is quite burnt up ? And if instinct teaches these 

 little creatures to clamber to such heights, and 

 voluntarily to exile themselves from all the damp 

 and boggy places they love to dwell in, what reason 

 can be assigned for their so doing?— A. G. 



Bifurcated Perns.— In the last number of 

 Science-Gossip Mr. T. Davies inquires whether a 

 bifurcated fertile frond of the Blechnum spicant is 

 of common occurrence. I beg to inform him that 

 I have frequently met with them in the west of 

 Connaught, and have several specimens in my pos- 

 session. Near the town of Oughterard I gathered 

 a frond nineteen inches in length, branched about 

 seven inches from the top ; another specimen I 

 found near Recess, Connemara, has the division 

 about four inches from the top, and one of the 

 branches is again forked. I have also a specimen 

 of this fern, from Recess, the lower half of which 

 is fertile and the upper barren. This " forking," so 

 common in the Scolopendrium vulgare, is frequently 

 met with in Asplenium Adiantum-nigrum, of which 

 I have several specimens. I have, also, two spe- 

 cimens of bifurcated Ceterach officinarum ; one I 

 found growing on a wall near Bandon, the other 

 at Headford, county Galway, and a specimen of 

 Polypodium vulgare, forked about four inches from 

 the apex of the frond, gathered at Creagh, near 

 Ballinrobe, county Mayo. I would also remark 

 that the Osmunda regalis grows abundantly near 

 Oughterard, and all through Connemara, — R. E., 

 Galway. 



Tea-tree {Lycium barbarian). — Again my tea- 

 tree is covered with scarlet fruit, large as grapes 

 and bright as holly-berries. No one who knows 

 this tree only in a barren state can conceive how 

 beautiful it is when oval waxlike berries and pale 

 green lanceolate leaves clothe its slender branches 

 with mingled green and scarlet. In November last 

 I put this question to the readers of Science-Gossip 

 — "Is not the fruit uncommon?" but elicited no 

 reply. I have known the plant for many years in both 

 northern and eastern England, but never saw its fruit 

 elsewhere. I have inquired, but cannot find that any 

 of my friends have been more fortunate than myself. 

 Nor do I find that even here, in the "sunny South," 

 the fruit is common. Will you again direct atten- 

 tion to the matter, and ascertain, if possible, whether 

 the plant may not have been introduced from some 

 warmer clime where it commonly assumes that 

 beauty which in our less sunny island seems so 

 rare?— W. C. C. 



Insects on Perns. — Could any of your cor- 

 respondents tell me any easy way of destroying 

 insects on ferns ? Many of my ferns are being 

 ruined by a very small black insect, about the size 

 of a midge, and in spite of constant washing, some- 

 times with soap-and-water, they are still as vigorous 

 as ever. The foreign and half-hardy ferns seem to 

 at'tract them most ; one plant of Platyloma ro- 

 tundifolia and an Asplenium viride being quite 

 ruined by them. If you could tell me any effec- 

 tual way of getting rid of them, I should be very 

 much obliged. — A. A. 



Red House-Ant. — Can any kind reader inform 

 me how to destroy ants ? Our house is overrun 

 with them, especially the larder. They are a small 

 red kind— H. F. M. 



Spider Bites. — I can confirm P. B. M.'s as- 

 sertion relative to the impression left by a spider's 

 bite, as last summer my sou caught one and closed 

 his hand upon it; it bit him instantly and left two 

 small blood-stains where it evidently bit him. My 

 wife wns bitten, but there was simply a slight swell- 

 ing.—*?. B. 



