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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



LMabch 1, 1S70. 



supplied in order to exhibit its prey to the animal, 

 as it crawls slowly over a grassy bank or on a sandy 

 path, then we have just what is wanted in the 

 case before us, where a bluish-green flame, not too 

 glaring to confuse the possessor, yet bright enough 

 i'or the purpose, scatters itself by reflection for a 

 short distance around and in front of the animal. 

 The whole question, however, is still in obscurity ; 

 nor is it vet determined what is the source of the 

 light itself. It is certainly due in the first instance 

 to a yellowish substance secreted between the plates 

 of the abdomen ; but experiment has hitherto failed 

 in detecting exactly its nature and the cause of its 

 luminosity. — TV. W. Spicer, Havre. 



Crystals in "Wasps. — Your correspondent ! 

 "H. W." appears to doubt the existence of the | 

 crystals in the poison-bag of the Wasp. In case Dr. ! 

 Lewis Mills should not have time to give him infor- 

 mation on the subject, it may interest him (or her) 

 to know that 1 have seen them witli my own micro- 

 scope, Dr. Lewis Mills having had the kindness to 

 lend me his specimen. The crystals were exactly as 

 shown by him in the illustration of Science-Gossip 

 for 1S6S ; the forms distinct and perfect ; the colours 

 beautiful ; but I believe that specimen to be unique, 

 at least I have never succeeded in finding the 

 crystals in any poison-bag I could buy, borrow, beg, j 

 or steal (if murdering a wasp and taking his baa - 

 may be accounted as the latter crime). If "H. W." 

 can, I should be very glad to hear of it, and so, I 

 think, would Dr. Lewis Mills.— L. H. Farquhar. 



1 Oviparous or Viviparous. — At the request of 

 the Asiatic Society, the Government of India made 

 inquiries from all district officers about the habits of 

 the Gangetic porpoise. One of the questions was 

 whether it was oviparous or viviparous. On putting 

 this question to some natives who happeued at the 

 time to be in the office, they replied that it was of 

 course oviparous, as it had no visible ears. Is it 

 true generally that animals without visible ears 

 (i. e. large ears) are oviparous ? — S. G. 



Woodruff (p. 47).— I am inclined to fancy that 

 the derivation of this, quoted by Mr. Spicer, is the 

 correct one. Wood-reeve would closely correspond 

 with Waldmeister ; and the French Heine ties Bois 

 may be noticed in connection with them. The 

 reason for the German name, at any rate, may be 

 found in the great popularity of the plant, not only 

 as forming the principal ingredient in the Maitrank 

 (not Maitrauk), but also for use in wreaths, etc. 

 This latter use appears to have been common iu 

 England ; at least it is mentioned as if so by 

 Gerard e, who also tells us that the plant is called 

 Jlerzfi rj/dt— heart's joy — in High Dutch ; another 

 name showing the appreciation in which it was held. 

 In our beechwoods it is Waldmeister in another 

 sense, being one of the very few plants which will 

 flourish sub tegminefagi. 1 have seen great patches 

 of it in the .Buckinghamshire woods. As to the 

 derivation from Woodrowel, we must remember 

 that it is by no means a miodern one, and is there- 

 fore entitled to a little 'respect before discarding. 

 Bosworth gives " Wudu-rofe, wood-rowel " ; and 

 Turner (1548) says that its leaves "represent 

 certain rowelles of sporrcs." Dr. Prior considers it 

 a word "adopted into Anglo-Saxon from the 

 French," and refers to rouetlc, a little spur ; but 

 the modern French names for the plant do not bear 

 out this derivation. The connection between 

 Asperula and Wood ruff, which might be spelt rough, 

 is probably only accidental. — James Britten. 



Bees aloft. — Last summer a swarm of bees 

 having chosen to make their nest in the roof of our 

 house, between the slates and rafters, I should be 

 much obliged if you could tell me of any plan to get 

 them down and induce them to go into a hive, and 

 also at what time of year would be best to make 

 the attempt.—/. S. William Durham. 



Fireflies. — In last month's Gossip a story is 

 given, taken from Kirby's "Introduction to En- 

 tomology," of Fireflies putting to rout the English 

 adventurers under the command of Cavendish and 

 Dudley. I take Firefly to mean Slater noctilucus ; 

 but were not the insects in question rather 

 Lantern-flies — Fulgoree ? — A. II. B., Birmingham, 



Admiral (p. 21).— I agree with " C. S. B. G." 

 in his remarks on this word. It is curious that a 

 title originally denoting any "lord" or "chief," is 

 now limited to the " commander of a fleet." The 

 al by a usage common to the Hebrew, Arabic, and 

 other Oriental tongues, goes with the following 

 noun, amir being what is called the construct state 

 of the word ; so that amiral is "lord of the " fleet, 

 or whatnot.— B. T.,M.A. 



Floral Antipathies. — The following from 

 Johnson's " Cornucopia; " (1595) are curious : — 

 " Neither do plants, herbs, beasts and such like, 

 want a ccrtaine kinde of hatred or enmitie as we 

 see Itubarbe hateth choller .... The olive tree so 

 detesteth the cowcumber that being placed nere 

 together, they wil turne backe and growe hooke- 

 wise lest they shoulde touehe one another. Goates 

 of all other herbes detest basill. All beastes doo 

 detest the female Pimpernell and not the male "; and 

 so on. Can Mr. Britten tell us what prickmadam 

 is, which "floureth thrise every yeare"?— B. T., 

 M.A. 



Floral Findings (p. 0). — "The Vine is greatly 

 delighted with the Elme and yeeldeth more frute 

 being placed together." (Thomas Johnson's " Cor- 

 nucopia:," 1595.) The passage in Milton is 

 "Paradise Lost," book v. 215. The practice is 

 referred to in Pliny, book xvii. cap. 23 : " Prima 

 omnium ulmus .... deinde populus." Compare 

 Horace's Epodes, ii. 10, and the poets generally. — 



n. t., ji.a. 



Hoddy-doddy (p. 21).— Since sending my former 

 remarks on this compound, I have come across the 

 following observations on the word in llichardsou's 

 Dictionary, which are to the purpose : — "Examples 

 sufficiently ancient and various have not occurred 

 to warrant even a conjecture as to the original 

 meaning of these words. Holland renders cochlece 

 hoddy-dods or shell-snails ; and these Bacon (Na- 

 tural! Historie, § 732) calls hodman-dods. In these 

 words the hod may be hood, referring to the shell 

 that covers them." The original, of which the two 

 passages referred to above are translations, occurs 

 in Pliny, book xvii. cap. 24.— it. T., M.A. 



Catf.rpillars at Work. — I am sorry to say 

 that I can sympathize with " D. J. S." in having 

 found my plants ravaged by caterpillars at so un- 

 usual a season. At the end of January, observing 

 some plants of scarlet geranium to be//v?,y//-eaten to 

 a considerable extent, I made diligent search, and 

 found a specimen of the caterpillar of the Privet 

 Hawk-moth in the very act of destroying the young 

 leaves of geranium on a plant standing under the 

 stage of our greenhouse.— J/. B. 31. 



