164 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[July ], 1870. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Preserving Wood. — In the Annates du Genie 

 Civil, of April last, Dr. Reinsch gives the following 

 directions for rendering wood difficult of combustion 

 and preserving it underground : — The wood, un- 

 planed, is to be placed for twenty-four hours in a 

 liquid composed of one part of concentrated silicate 

 of potassa and three of pure water. After being 

 removed and dried for several days, the wood is 

 again to be soaked in this liquid, and after being 

 again dried, painted over with a mixture of one part 

 of cement and four parts of the above liquid. When 

 the first coat of this paint is dry, the painting is to 

 be repeated twice. This paint mixture should only 

 be made up in small quantities, as it rapidly be- 

 comes dry and hard. Wood thus treated oecomes 

 uninflammable, and does not decay underground. — 

 Chemical News. 



Herb Paris. — I have found to-day, in Lady- 

 wood, near Folkestone, Herb Paris (Paris quadri- 

 folid), with the following arrangement : — leaves 6, 

 sepals 5, petals 4. I should be glad to know if this 

 has been previously noticed. I found near the same 

 place a Dandelion {Taraxacum dens-leonis) with 

 t.wo flower-heads on the same stalk, both quite at 

 the top, so that there was no division of the stalk. 

 — C. L. Acland, Folkestone. 



Wingless Insects. — I beg to thank Mr. Spicer 

 for his reply to my invitation to a friendly gossip on 

 the above subject, and quite agree with him in his 

 appreciation of that great entomologist, Hermann 

 Burmeister, as well as in thinking that "techni- 

 calities and hard names" should, when possible, be 

 avoided in writing for the pages of Science-Gossip. 

 Still, however, I consider that the request of Ihe 

 editor to use " common names " is not intended to 

 apply in every case, but only in those instances (as 

 I said before) where "common" (in the sense of 

 "generally known and accepted") names are in 

 existence. Moreover, I think that Mr. Spicer will 

 find, if he asks collectors what moth they understand 

 by the " Chimney Sweeper," that nine out of ten 

 will reply, " Tanagra chcerophyllata," and not 

 "Fumea." In regard to the detestable Pediculids, 

 there has been at varioua times much controversy 

 regarding their proper location. They have several 

 times been placed among the Hemiptera ; in which 

 order the latest writer on the classification of insects 

 (Dr. Packard, who, by the way, includes the Spiders 

 and Myriapods among the Insccfa, thus affording 

 Mr. Spicer, if he pleases, a host of examples of 

 "wingless insects") retains them. Other natu- 

 ralists have placed them among the Myriapods ; but 

 what their proper situation is has not yet, I think, 

 been satisfactorily shown. One word with regard 

 to the " animal whose body is divided into three 

 segments," &c, which, unless "three" be a lapsus 

 calami for "thirteen," or " segments" for "divi- 

 sions," is surely a creature of Mr. Spicer's own 

 imagination. My belief was, and is, that all insects 

 have their bodies divided into thirteen segments, 

 which (in the perfect state, at least) are arranged 

 in three divisions, — head, thorax, and abdomen. 

 With regard to Anisopteryx, 1 am not aware that 

 in any recent list, either British or Continental, is 

 Hybemia leucophoearia included in it, : indeed, by one 

 great continental authority, Dr. llcrrich-Schali'er, 

 the geuera Anisopteryx and Hybemia are placed far 

 apart ; while in all other modern lists in which t hese 

 two genera are placed in the same family, lettco- 



phcearia is separated from Anisopteryx by three other 

 species of Hybemia. — F. Buchanan White, Colvend, 

 Dalbeattie. 



A Field of Barley grown from Oats. — Tt was 

 a large field of barley grown from oats. The barley 

 sown in this field was the first-born offspring of 

 oats. The head and berry were barley, and the 

 stalk and sheaves were oats ; and the whole process 

 by which this wonderful transformation is wrought 

 is simply this and nothing more :— The oats are sown 

 about the last week in June; and before coming 

 into ear, they are cut down within one inch and a 

 half of the ground. This operation is repeated a 

 second time. They are then allowed to stand through 

 the winter, and the following season the produce is 

 barley. This is the plain statement of the case in 

 the very words of the originator of this process, and 

 of this' strange transmutation. The only practical 

 result of it which he claims, is this, that the straw 

 of the barley thus produced is stouter and stands 

 more erect, and therefore less liable to be beaten 

 down by heavy winds or rain. Then perhaps it 

 may be added, this oat-straw headed with barley is 

 more valuable as fodder for live stock than the na- 

 tural barley straw. But the value of this result is 

 nothing compared with the issue of the experiment 

 as proving the existence of a principle or law hitherto 

 undiscovered, which may be applied to all kinds of 

 plants for the use of man and beasts. If any reader 

 of these notes is disposed to inquire more fully into 

 this subject, I am sure he may apply without hesi- 

 tation to Mr. John Ekins, of Bruntisham, near St. 

 Ives, Huntingdonshire, who will supply any addi- 

 tional information needed. — Extract from " A Walk 

 from London to John o' Groats," by Elihu Burritt. 

 Can any correspondent explain this ? — T. C. 0. 



Toads and Bees. — I am of opinion our friend 

 Mr. George Guyon, in Science-Gossif, need be 

 under no apprehension of damage to bis toads and 

 frogs by their making a repast upon bees or wasps. 

 I have fed them, and repeatedly given both insects, 

 without ever having noticed the least harm to arise, 

 although they have often been stung in the mouth, 

 ami the wasp or bee has huug by the sting for a 

 moment, but they have been almost instantly 

 swallowed, with no indication of damage, or even 

 any appearance of pain. It would seem, then, that 

 the sting of these insects has no injurious effect; but 

 if it has, I have not perceived it. Both animals, by 

 attention and feeding, may be rendered tame and 

 almost familiar. A very excellent and correct 

 account of the mode in which the frog takes its 

 food is given, by the Rev. W. T. Bree, Allesley 

 Rectory, in the Magazine of Natural History, 

 vol. iii. p. 320, July, 1830, and also in vol. i. p. 479, 

 of frogs being kept for the purpose of prognosti- 

 cating the weather.—//'. P. N. 



Cowslip.— I have been told that cuzlippe in the 

 Saxon, the old name of this plant, comes from the 

 fact that the flower grows in pasture lands, where 

 it often meets the cow's lip. _ Your correspondent 

 will remember Ben Jonson's lines,— 



" Strew, strew the glad arnLsmiling ground, 

 With every flow'r, yet not unround 

 The primrose drop— the spring's own spouse, 

 Bright day's-eyes, and the lips of rows," 



and " Paigles," from palsey wort, Ilerba paralysis. 

 In the olden time the cowslip was deemed particu- 

 larly efficacious in all paralytic affections.— Helen 

 F. Watney, Upper Norwood. 



