214 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



[Sept. 1, 1S70. 



Cleaning Eokaminifera and Shells. — In 

 reply to Henry Lee, Science-Gossip, July, p. 167, 

 as to cleaning Foraminifera, allow me to give him 

 my experience in procuring them from sea-sand. 

 In the first place I obtained from a wholesale 

 sponge-merchant, with whom I deal, a parcel of 

 sand, from Turkey sponge. He kindly sent me 

 twenty pounds' weight. I sifted it through a sieve 

 of sixty meshes to the linear inch. This removed 

 most of the shells, except a few extremely small 

 ones. The sand was thus rejected. The shells were 

 then divided into four portions, by sifting through 

 three other sieves, the coarsest of which had sixteen 

 meshes to the linear inch. This last removed many 

 larger shells, fragments of seaweed, sponge, &c. 

 Each portion of the Foraminifera was now pliced 

 in a Florence flask, with about twice its bulk of 

 liquor potassse, and boiled for a quarter of an hour. 

 The liquor potassse, which was now nearly black, 

 was poured off, and replaced l>y water, in which the 

 shells were again boiled for a quarter "of an hour. 

 This was poured off, and the flask filled with clean 

 water. There was a quantity of fine vegetable 

 matter, not soluble, in the potash. This was re- 

 moved by rotating the flask, allowing the shells to 

 settle, and carefully pouring off th.e water. This 

 had to be done several times. The whole was 

 then poured into a paper-filter, set in a funnel, and 

 as the water filtered away, fresh was poured till all 

 the potash was removed. It is necessary to tap the 

 side of the funnel gently, so as to cause the shells 

 to settle, and to shake the fluid out of them. 

 Lastly, the filter and its contents were placed on a 

 plate, and dried in the oven. From twenty pounds 

 of sand I procured three ounces of cleaued and 

 dried Foraminifera. Few things exceed the beauty 

 of these minute shells in their pearly whiteness, 

 Mounted dry, they are especially suited for the 

 binocular, and, when well mounted in ba'sam, are 

 splendid polariscope objects. J. C. H., Science- 

 Gossip, August, p. 190, will find steeping or boiling 

 in liquor potassae about the best thing for cleaning 

 the dirt out of the small shells he speaks of. — J. //. 



Variations of Leaves.— C. L. J. is thanked 

 for his communication on this subject. It is no 

 unusual circumstance for plants of the cabbage tribe 

 to produce an abnormal growth from the surface of 

 their leaves. This sometimes takes the form of a 

 frill at each side of the midrib, when a section of 

 the leaf is tetrapterous. At other times a number 

 of small cups are produced, which exactly resemble 

 the fungus called peziza, only they are green instead 

 of red. A distinct cup, the size of a wine glass, 

 and elevated on a stalk three inches long, as de- 

 scribed by C. S. J., is not of such frequent oc- 

 currence. Some interesting information on the 

 subject of the formation of adventitious pitchers, 

 and concerning hypertrophy in leaves, will be found 

 at pages 21 and 445 of Masters' " Vegetable Tera- 

 tology." A pitcher, formed by the plumule of a 

 vegetable marrow plant, described as follows by 

 C.L.J., is very remarkable: — " From between the 

 seed leaves, instead of the usual outgrowth, there 

 springs a single stalk, on the top of winch is a large 

 cup. This cup is exactly like the ordinary leaf, 

 except in its queer shape ; it is large enough to con- 

 tain several wine-glasses of water, but it appears to 

 put an end to the plant, for there is no visible eye 

 from which a proper shoot could spring." Probably 

 this pitcher is formed by the cohesion of several 

 leaves, and its growth has in some way caused the 

 suppression of the axis of the plant. It is, however, 



not uncommon to find the entire plumule suppressed 

 in cahbages and in celery. In these cases the 

 cotyledons are the only leaves produced, and the 

 plant, after a while, dwindles away entirely. — Ro- 

 bert Holland. 



The Upas Tree.— Our old friend the Upas Tree 

 turns up again in CasseU's Magazine for August, 

 p. 536, with the same thrilling account of the method 

 in which the gum is procured, which, we hoped, had 

 been consigned to the regions of "old wives' fable- 

 dom."— See Science-Gossip, 1S68, p. 266.— James 

 Britten. 



Borrago (pp. 165, 1S9).— "R. T., M. A." will 

 find this name and its compounds with the double r 

 in Le Maout and Decaisne's "Traite de 

 Botanique;" in Decandolle's "Prodromus ;" in 

 Walper's "Annales," and in most foreign botanical 

 works. In England, however, the single r seems to 

 have been the general use from the clays of Turner's 

 " Herbal" (q. v.) to the present day. — James Britten. 



Borrago. — This word seems allied to, or derived 

 from, the Latin and Greek Boreas — northerly. The 

 Boraginacere are chiefly natives of the northern 

 regions, and the herb Borago officinalis combined to 

 form what is called a." cool tankard." — A. H. 



Testacella. — A gentleman who is engaged in 

 studying the slug family is unable to procure speci- 

 mens of Testacella in his own neighbourhood; he 

 will feel greatly obliged if any of our readers, who 

 may happen to reside in parts of the country where 

 they are common, will send a few specimens 

 addressed to C. Barron, Haslar, Gosport. 



Chenopoditjim Bonus Henrictjs (Science - 

 Gossip, p. ISO).— It is supposed that the Henry 

 honouring this plant with his name is the sixth, 

 known popularly as the good King Henry ! From 

 the circumstance that many of the vernacular names 

 of our wild plants were given by the monks of the 

 olden times, some have accounted for a designation, 

 otherwise singular, since the aforesaid king was held 

 in especial esteem by the spiritual dignitaries of his 

 reisn, for whom he founded Eton College. — 

 /. R. S. C. 



Misleading Localities.— A correspondent re- 

 cords in last month's Science-Gossip a disappoint- 

 ment he incurred when searching for a plant in a 

 spot where it was reported to occur abundantly. I 

 suspect a good number of persons are yearly put to 

 disappointment and needless expense through the 

 fact that in books long lists of localities for plants 

 and insects are given which were either fictitious in 

 the first instance, or are now valueless because the 

 species has died out. One can hardly expect the 

 compiler of a book to ascertain for himself the cor- 

 rectness of such references in all cases, yet there 

 has been too much careless copying from doubtful 

 authorities.— J. R. S. Clifford, 59, Robert Street, 

 Chelsea. 



Pao d'Arco.— The tree known as the Pao 

 d'Arco is a species of Bignonia. There are a great 

 many kinds of plants belonging to this genus ; some 

 of them, most ornamental climbers, lovely to look at 

 in this country, but still more so in their native 

 forests ; at least so a gentleman who has been out 

 in the Brazils informs me. The red paint called 

 chica, and which lis used by the natives of the 

 Orinoco to stain their bodies, is made from one of 

 the Bignonia.— Helen E. Watney. 



