Nov. 1, 1S6S.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



239 



S. Convolvtjli has been very plentiful in this 

 district this autumn, there having been six speci- 

 mens taken and many others seen. They were all 

 taken hovering round gladioli, none bein:;' 

 noticed near any other plant. The two largest 

 measured four inches and three-quarters from tip to 

 tip. There have also been seen two specimens of 

 Deilephila licomica, one of which (a fine one) was 

 captured.— A. P., Wohingham, near Darlington. 



S. Convolvtjli alighted on board the Lord Raglan 

 when about five miles off Tynemouth. It is a fine 

 specimen, measuring across the wings four inches 

 and three-quarters. It is now in my possession.— 

 W. M. H. 



How a Rat Stole Eggs.— The rats having made 

 free with my eggs, I determined to watch the 

 process of lowering them from the shelf on which 

 they were kept. Having concealed myself, I soon 

 saw a rat mount the shelf, nearly three feet from 

 the ground, take an egg between his claws and 

 break at one end a hole large enough to insert the 

 end of his jaw ; clasping the egg against his stomach 

 with his two paws, and steadying it with his jaw in 

 the hole he had made, he walked backwards to the 

 edge of the shelf, and then deliberately threw him- 

 self down, so that he fell with his back on the 

 ground, and the egg nestling at his stomach. He 

 turned over, and was decamping with the egg, 

 but I stopped him and recovered it, unbroken, 

 save the little hole at one end in which he had 

 inserted his jaw. — C. 



Wasps. — Being tormented this year by an infinity 

 of wasps, I was advised to catch them in a bottle 

 which contained cyanide of potassium mixed with 

 plaster of Paris ; this proved very successful, killing 

 them in a few seconds. Observing some of them 

 were of a carmine colour (a few of which I enclose), 

 both myself and friends believed we had found a 

 new variety. Eurther investigation has, however, 

 proved they are Vespa germanica materially changed 

 by the influence of the cyanide, and it will be 

 interesting to know if other objects are altered by a 

 similar process ; for if so, it may prove an objection 

 to its use.— W. T. Iliff, Epsom. 



BOTANY. 



Early Elowering in Spring, 1868 (p. 189).— 

 My own experience quite coincides with that of my 

 friend Mr. Stewart. During the four years I have 

 resided at High Wycombe, I have kept a calendar 

 of the flowering of our wild plants ; and, with 

 scarcely an exception, all have been earlier this year 

 than in the three preceding. On an average, most 

 species have been, at least, a week in advance, many 

 ten or twelve days. Our spring flowers were 

 unusually abundant and luxuriant, but the heat of 

 June entirely spoilt our summer-blossoming species. 



Our hedges, usually so brilliant, were in July almost 

 bare of flowers ; and those which did put in an ap 

 pearance were, for the most part, stunted and 

 dwarfed by the heat. In Cheshire the same state of 

 things prevailed: most of the August flowering 

 plants had blossomed in July, and many of the bog- 

 plants of the moors made no appearance at all. In 

 North Wales I was disappointed at finding that 

 many species, which I had hoped to collect in full 

 flower, were far advanced, and in many cases out 

 of blossom. — B. 



Puffballs and Eungi.— There have been in 

 Science-Gossip some very interesting papers on the 

 edible qualities of different fungi. The gigantic 

 puffballs, called in Norfolk \ Bulfirs, are most 

 delicious and wholesome when properly cooked. 

 I got a very large one the other day, and had it 

 cooked. Two ladies were stopping with us who did 

 not know such things were fit to eat, and would not 

 touch it till I had had some ; when, seeing no harm 

 come, they ventured to taste, and were equally 

 pleased and astonished at its goodness. It requires 

 to be fried with a little butter over a very slow fire, 

 in slices about an inch thick, and I think is best 

 eaten with a little pepper and salt on toast. Eew 

 persons seem to be aware of the use of the fairy -ring 

 mushroom for flavouring. It gives a delicious taste 

 to different preparations of meat, and cannot very . 

 well be mistaken when once seen. It should be 

 gathered and dried gently, and a little pounded 

 when wanted. It has a great advantage over the 

 mushroom, that it dries easily, and doesn't seem to 

 be infested with grubs. — E. T. Scott. 



Old Trees. — It is probable that there are yet 

 many very remarkable trees scattered over the 

 country which have not yet had their features re- 

 corded. I do not know if there has ever been men- 

 tioned by any one, among other celebrated oaks, one 

 that grew in Holt Eorest, in Hampshire, which fell a 

 victim, along with many other old patriarchs of the 

 forest, in the time of the great French Revolution, 

 in consequence of the great demand for material for 

 ship-building. This monster girted, at eight feet 

 from the ground, thirty-five feet, and, according to 

 tradition, this size, within an inch, was the same a 

 hundred years previous. The finest trees I have 

 ever seen were growing in and around the neigh- 

 bourhood of Cowdray Park, in Sussex. The soil 

 here abounds in sandstone, which I believe is very 

 congenial to their growth.— George Newly n. 



Fontinalis antipyretica. — I enclose a speci- 

 men of Fontinalis antipyretica in fruit, taken from 

 a pond lying between Carthagena and Cossington 

 Lodge. Perhaps some of your readers may have 

 observed the abundance of its fruit this year, and 

 that it is not so much owing to the situation as the 

 season that this abundance may be ascribed.— F.G.T. 



