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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE- GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1868. 



comparative thickness of cap and stem, could, in 

 September, 1S66, be found in the same manner. In 

 another county, many years ago, a ring, partly 

 beyond a tree and partly under its branches, pro- 

 duced mushrooms, graduating from the campestris 

 to the Georgii form at the same time. 



" These observations seem to indicate that some 

 cause, to us unknown, varies these plants from year 

 to year ; and that the Agaricus campestris and 

 A. Georgii are really but one species." 



We know that Agaricus campestris is a very 

 variable species ; and we have no means of judging, 

 either from specimens, drawings, or good descrip- 

 tions, what Mrs. Key's A. Georgii really is, or 

 whether it is anything more than a form of Agaricus 

 campestris. We gain no greater confidence after 

 perusing the following postscript : — 



" This year (Sept., 1867) some mushrooms have 

 grown under a tree, which, thin in cap and slender 

 in stem, like Agaricus campestris, have the pecidiar 

 whiteness of Agaricus Georgii ( c white caps ' is its 

 name in Covent Garden market), and turn yellow 

 on being bruised ; the gills are paler than in a really 

 good mushroom, but not so pale as in A. Georgii, 

 and they have scarcely any scent. They appear 

 exactly intermediate, and are an additional instance 

 of what is said above." 



Although we cannot accept the conclusion, as 

 based upon the evidence given by this lady, that 

 Agaricus campestris L. and Agaricus arvensis Schoeif. 

 are the same species, althougb found growing in 

 close proximity, we may add a curious fact con- 

 nected with the fairy-ring mushroom. Last year a 

 grass plot in a garden near Norwich had a ring of 

 puff-balls {Lycoperdon gemmatum Er.) growing upon 

 it. This year the same ring is occupied by the 

 fairy-ring champignon {Marasmius oreacles), and not 

 a puff-ball has appeared. Would Mrs. Key have 

 concluded from this circumstance that Lycoperdon 

 gemmatum and Marasmius oreades are the same 

 species ? 



The volume of " Transactions," from whence the 

 above is quoted, contains also three excellent co- 

 loured plates of esculent fungi, with observations 

 by Dr. Bull of Hereford. Other similar illustrations 

 are half promised, and we hope will appear in the 

 next volume. The Committee cannot do better 

 service than by publishing such characteristic figures 

 of good and poisonous fungi, under the superin- 

 tendence of Dr. Bull. Six photographs of remark- 

 able trees in Herefordshire, with other illustrations, 

 and much valuable local information, enrich the 

 volume, reflecting considerable credit on the Wool- 

 hope Club. 



A Committee was formed at the Norwich 

 meeting of the [British Association to endeavour to 

 secure protection for all birds during the breeding 

 season. Mr. Erank Buckland is secretary. 



A MONSTER OE THE DEEP. 



rpHE following observations are condensed from 

 •*- " Le Monde de la Mer," par A. Eredol: Paris, 

 1865 :— 



"Eor ages past stories have been current of the 

 existence of gigantic species belonging to the 

 Cephalopod or Cuttle-fish group of the Mollusca. 

 Pliny tells of one, which was caught on the coast of 

 Spain and sent to the Proconsul Lucullus, which 

 weighed more than 700 pounds, with arms 30 feet 

 long. Pliny, however, is completely outdone by 

 Olaus Magnus, Archbishop of Upsala, who describes 

 a colossal cephalopod, which was a mile long, and 

 which, when it came to the surface, had more the 

 appearance of an island than of a living creature : 

 he gives it the name of the Kraken. Pontoppidan, 

 Bishop of Berghen, adds that a whole regiment of 

 soldiers might with ease manoeuvre on the back of 

 the floating monster. Indeed, a certain Bishop of 

 Nidros — so the story runs— did actually erect an 

 altar on this singular foundation (which he mistook 

 for a rock, as the animal basked in the sun), and 

 did then and there celebrate Mass. The legend 

 adds that the Kraken submitted to the ceremony 

 without flinching; but no sooner did the good 

 bishop step ashore than it plunged into the depths 

 of the ocean. Linnaeus, in the first edition of his 

 ' Systema Naturse,' admitted the existence of this 

 imaginary monster, and named it ' Sepia micro- 

 cosmus;' later, however, it was expunged from his 

 work. 



" Although, however, the stories of island-like 

 Krakens are of course fictitious, there seems to be 

 little doubt that individuals of this family really do 

 exist in the Mediterranean and other seas, whose 

 dimensions fairly entitle them to the epithet 

 ' gigantic' Thus the famous diver Piscinola, who 

 plunged into the Straits of Messiua at the request 

 of the Emperor Frederick II., declared, on his 

 return to upper air, that he had been horrified by 

 the sight of enormous cuttle-fish clinging to the 

 rocks, whose arms, several yards long, seemed well 

 fitted to strangle a man. Modem naturalists have 

 recorded the capture of various huge cephalopods. 

 M. Verany speaks of one which measured nearly 

 four feet long, aud was 30 pounds in weight. Peron,* 

 in one of his voyages, described an individual, 

 off the coast of Tasmania, moving slowly over the 

 waves, with ' a body as big as a barrel,' and with 

 arms not less than six feet long, which twisted 

 about like so many hideous serpents. Quoy and 

 Gaimard, when on the Atlantic, near the Equator, 

 picked up the remains of au enormous cuttle-fish ; 



* Dr. Fr. Peron collected in his travels upwards of 1 no, 000 

 zoological specimens, of which not less than 2,500 were new 

 species. Baron Cuvier said of him that he had made the 

 acquaintance of more living forms than all the naturalists of 

 his time put together. He died in 1810.— W. W. S. 



