23S 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Oct. 1, 1S68. 



Spider Poison.— When Mr. Graham Ponton 

 charges me with impugning, not the truth of his 

 assertion, but of his observations on this point, I 

 think he shows himself to have an exceptionally thin 

 skin, which I am surprised has not been pierced by 

 some large English spider. The assertion was as 

 follows : — " Certainly no English spider is capable 

 of inflicting a bite sufficiently hard to pierce the 

 human skin ; this I have frequently proved by ex- 

 periment." I can only congratulate myself upon 

 having in this matter a more favourable experience 

 than Mr. Ponton, though by no means a pleasant 

 one. I would remind Mr. Ponton that because no 

 English spider has pierced his skin, it is not certain 

 evidence of their inability to do so, while my hand 

 has been bitten in the manner described; but I 

 think the article in August number of Science- 

 Gossip, p. 189, headed " Spider Poison," bears out 

 the remark that Mr. Ponton was in error — inadver- 

 tently, I believe, but not the less in error — when he 

 wrote that no English spider is capable of inflicting 

 a bite sufficiently hard to pierce the human skin.— 

 F. R. M. 



Dreissena again. — I notice in your July number 

 that "T. G. P." wishes for information respecting 

 Dreissena polymorpha. I can supply a few facts, 

 but cannot give the dates. I think it must be 

 thirty years since, when in a boat searching along 

 the sides of the lesser Nene, which runs through 

 the town of March, I found the young fresh shells 

 attached to the flags, from three-eighths to half an 

 inch long. I never found them in that way after 

 that year, but found them afterwards adhering to a 

 wall, one and a half inch long, and nearly (in one 

 instance) one inch wide. I have since found them 

 in a large drain, six or seven miles from Wisbeach, 

 by thousands, and, though the drain has since been 

 cleaned out, I believe they are still abundant. — 

 Samuel Smith, Wisbeach. 



Dreissena polymorpha. — Would some of your 

 Irish correspondents be so good as to inform me if 

 this mollusc occurs in Ireland ? I should likewise 

 be glad to know if it is found in Wales ? — T. Q. P. 



Dreissena polymorpha is very abundant in this 

 neighbourhood, in the Dee, and Mersey, and Chester 

 and Ellesmere Canals. It is' found in clusters at- 

 tached by the byssus to the brick and stone work, &c. 

 Young ones are also found occasionally adhering to 

 the rushes, singly, upon the banks, just beneath the 

 surface of the water.— C. Mills, Chester. 



Imbedded Lizard. — An extraordinary curiosity 

 in natural history has just been discovered (writes 

 a correspondent) at Mr. Brown's iron-mine, Brix- 

 ham, Devon. A shaft, 74 feet deep, has been sunk, 

 and whilst one of the men was at work he dug out 

 a large piece of ore, and on his breaking it there 

 crept out of it a living lizard, upwards of six inches 

 in length. Its belly was of a yellow colour, and its 

 back was brown. The ignorant fellow who brought 

 this phenomenon to light seized the little reptile 

 and crushed out its life. There is no doubt that 

 this little creature must have been imbedded in this 

 living tomb several centuries. — Torquay Directory, 

 Aug. 12, 186S. 



Dead Sea— "W. H. R." inquires, "Are there 

 any fish in the Dead Sea?" W. E. Lynch, in his 

 narrative of the U. S. Expedition to the Dead Sea, 

 writes : — " The mysterious element on which we 

 floated, and which alone, of all the works of its 

 Maker, contains no living thing within it." 



Parson-bird.— I have seen an absurd statement 

 by T. P. Barkas in Gossip for April, and, as I live 

 with thousands of Tois about me, I asked a lad, 

 who is an accurate observer, to write out the follow- 

 ing for you : — " The Toi, or Parson-bird, is a black 

 bird, and has two small white feathers under its 

 neck. It mostly feeds on the fuchsia-berries, and 

 sometimes on the mero-berry, and it picks small 

 stones from the river -side when the bush is near the 

 bank ; it also likes the honey of the flax -bush. It 

 is a very good singer, and when it builds a nest, it 

 builds it on very high trees. The Toi is very good 

 for eating, aud when a hawk tries to take one, it 

 makes a kind of noise, and all the others come and 

 fight with it until it lets go." The " mero " is the 

 white pine of New Zealand. — -/. U. L. Ralfe, Okaiito, 

 West Land, Canterbury, N. Z. 



Eossils at Walthamstow. — Any of our readers 

 who are making a collection of fossil land and 

 freshwater shells will be glad to learn that they 

 are to be obtained in great numbers at the excava- 

 tions for the new reservoirs at Walthamstow, five 

 minutes' walk from Tottenham Railway Station. 

 The beds are of recent and post-pliocene age. The 

 fossils are in excellent preservation. — R. E. 0. 



"Devonshire Eerns."— Observing that some 

 of your readers are interested in the whereabouts of 

 the Osmunda regalis in Cornwall, I take this oppor- 

 tunity of informing them that it is to be found in 

 great abundance in many of the woods and marshes 

 in this parish (Beerferris), and that at Rumleigb, 

 also in this parish, there is a lane about fifty yards 

 long, in which nine species of ferns are growing ; 

 and in the adjoining woods the Osmunda regalis in 

 great luxuriance. — M. Kent. 



Bifurcated Eerns. — I have a frond of Poly- 

 podium vulgare, bifurcated two and a half inches 

 from the top ; the peculiarity about it is that the 

 central axis is prolonged for an inch beyond the 

 division. This I have not noticed before. — E. LI. H. 

 Fox, M.D., Broughton, Winchester. 



Gold-fish Hatching. (Reply to X., Edgbas- 

 ton.)— The supplies of food for the parent gold-fish 

 consisted of meat (beef and mutton), cooked or 

 otherwise, and given about every other day in small 

 pieces, such as the fish could easily swallow. The 

 aquatic plant I have found succeed best is the 

 Valisneria spiralis, but in the aquarium where the 

 young fish are hatched there happened to be only a 

 small bulb of the common white water lily. — W. 0. 



Tea-tree. — In answer to " W. C. C," concerning 

 the fruiting of the Tea-tree, I have one growing in 

 the open road, now covered with berries. — J. 

 Perrin, 71, Be Beauvoir Road, Kingsland. 



Second Spring. — Following thejtropical summer 

 which we have just experienced we have now 

 almost a second spring. To-day I found a blackthorn, 

 which had been completely denuded of leaves by the 

 heat, in full flower and leaf. This is somewhat 

 remarkable, as the flowers ordinarily come first. 

 Many other trees and plants whose leaves had fallen 

 are now again putting forth leaves and blooming. 

 Larches which three weeks ago were as bare as in 

 the depth of winter, are now covered with green 

 shoots, and fuchsias which had entirely lost their 

 leaves are now in full foliage and beginning to 

 flower.— L., Lynn Regis. 



