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HABDTTICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[June 1, 187' 



Nightingales. — In March several letters were 

 inserted in the Times, recording the early appearance 

 amongst ns this season of the Nightingale in some 

 parts of the country. I desire to draw attention to 

 the earliest appearance I am acquainted with, that of 

 the Nightingale heard by Cowper on New Year's 

 Day, 1792. The poet thus commences : — 



" Whence is it that, amazed, I hear, 



From yonder wither'd spray, 

 This foremost morn of all the year, 



The melody of May ?" 



After all, was it a nightingale that the poet 

 heard ?— R. T., M.A. 



Bees. — Having frequently noticed that one side 

 of a certain sandbank, about six feet in height, sur- 

 mounted by a thick hedge, was in many places 

 drilled with a number of holes about half an inch 

 in diameter, without being able to account for them 

 to my satisfaction, I was not a little surprised the 

 other day, on walking through the field bordered by 

 this bank, to see several bees, which, on examination 

 proved to be of the solitary species, entering these 

 holes; but two bees never by any means entered 

 the same aperture. Upon more minute observation, 

 I found that none of these passages exceeded three 

 inches in length, and that there was no communica- 

 tion whatever between any two of them. Yet some 

 of them were drilled so close together that there 

 was nothing but a thin wail to separate one passage 

 from another. Exactly fitting into the bottoms of 

 several of these small burrows, which for the most 

 part curved downwards, was a small shell-like cup, 

 corresponding in shape and size to an acorn-cup, 

 which was in some cases empty, but generally con- 

 tained a yellowish semi-solid, which, although in very 

 small quantities, possessed a most filthy effluvium. 

 No cells of any kind were visible, and I am quite 

 certain that no two bees ever entered the same hole. 

 In another part of the bank I found that most of 

 these " bee-burrows" contained the dead body of a 

 bee entirely incased in a crumbling shell, which 

 appeared to be of the same substance as the above- 

 mentioned cup-like structures, only, instead of being 

 merely as large as the acorn-c/^, it was increased to 

 the size and shape of the acorn itself. These corpses 

 had evidently been interred in their curious coffins 

 for a year or more, as many of them, on being exposed 

 to the air, crumbled away. The cases themselves 

 were very brittle, and often very imperfect. Can you 

 give a satisfactory explanation of these curious fact s ? 

 If these bees really made these holes for their habita- 

 tion, it would seem that they lived entirely upon 

 plunder, like the solitary wasps, since there was no 

 room in any of their passages for cells ; and, laying up 

 no store, perished in coffins of their own manufac- 

 ture as winter closed in. But then, how and where 

 do they rear their young ? — //. D. IF., Isleworth. 



Is it a Bee ?— I discovered a short time since in 

 the flower-garden, some little creaturss apparently 

 of the Bee species, which had burrowed their 

 way to the surface from some depth, and had thrown 

 up small mounds of earth. The animal was some- 

 what smaller than the Honey Bee, and certainly was 

 not the large "Humble Bee" I have been accus- 

 tomed to see in old banks, &c. Can you name the 

 species, and state whether common ?— H. N. Oscott. 



Toads eating Bees. — As bearing on your cor- 

 respondent's inquiries on the above subject, allow 

 me to state, that I once took thirty-two whole bees 

 (dead, but apparently otherwise none the worse for 



their incarceration), from the stomach of a large fat 

 toad, which dwelt " in a hole" beneath a neighbour's 

 bee-hive ; besides the thirty-two bees, the stomach 

 contained a black plastic mass, as large as a walnut, 

 clearly consisting of half-digested bees and beetles. 

 Now, although I cannot lay claim to having seen the 

 toad take any one of his victims, yet, as toads are 

 said to take none but moving prey, it may be con- 

 cluded, from the above facts, that toads eat bees alive, 

 and while capable of using their stings.— W.-le-W. 



Spiral Vessels._ — As your correspondent 

 "W. J. B." wishes information respecting plants 

 containing large quantities of spiral vessels, I may 

 state the largest quantity I have ever met with 

 were obtained from the Mum textilis. They were 

 sent me from the West Indies, where they were 

 used as tinder. I enclose a small quantity.— ^ 7 ". T. 

 I I iff, Epsom. 



Aquarium. — Can you or any of your correspon- 

 dents tell me how to get the Conferva; off the front 

 of an aquarium? I have had it "in work" for 

 nearly three years without change of water, but 

 owing to press of business, have been unable to 

 sponge the front for some little time, and now I 

 cannot get it clear. I have tried sand and hard 

 rubbing, but all to no purpose. — </. G. Odell. 



[Probably it is too much exposed to the light, and 

 there are not sufficient snails {Planorbis) in the 

 aquarium to keep down the growth of Confervse.] 



Tampico Jalap.— In the Journal of the Linnean 

 Society for May, Mr. Daniel Hanbury describes 

 and figures Ipomtea simulans as the source of the 

 above-named drug. 



Throbbing-stones. — I should be much gratified 

 if any learned correspondent could name any actual 

 cases of stones that vibrate to one, and only one, 

 note sounded near them, as alluded to by Mr. B. 

 Browning, in his glorious poem of Bordello, book ii., 

 1. 450 to 459. 



" Like some huge throbbiner-stone that, poised a-joint, 

 Sounds, to affect on its basaltic bed, 

 Must sue, in just one accent,'' &c. 



As Mr. Browning is the most accurate of all poets, 

 past and present, in his scientific allusions, I can 

 hardly believe he is wdiolly following a popular 

 imagination in this case. — /. Kirkman, Hampstead. 



Stigmas (?) of Conifers.— In a well-known little 

 work by W. S. Coleman, "Our Woodlands, Heaths, 

 and Hedges," I read the following in the botanical 

 description of the Pine genus : — "Pericarps attached 

 to the inside of scale, more or less winged; deci- 

 duous ; stigmas, bifid or trifid." And, again, of the 

 Larch: — "Stigma hemispherical, cupped, glandular." 

 As I have hitherto understood the N. 0. Pinacea to 

 be distinguished by their naked ovules, " without 

 ovary, style, stigma, or pericarp," I should be glad 

 of an explanation of the above. — R. Curtis, 15, Cum- 

 berland Place, Bayswater. 



[N. 0. Pinace^e. — "Ovary spread open and 

 having the appearance of a flat scale, destitute of 

 style or stigma, and arising from the axil of a mem - 

 branous bract." — Lindley's Veg. King., p. 226.] 



Primula farinosa.— In reply to the queries of 

 B. T., M. A., in your May number, respecting the 

 time, of flowering of the above pretty wild flower, 

 which has been an especial favourite with me from 



