Oct. 1, 1870.] 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



223 



intercrossing than this of rendering the stigma of a 

 flower unsusceptible of being acted on by the 

 pollen from the stamens of the same flower, while 

 it is perfectly fertile when acted on by the stamens 

 of the same length as the style in another flower. 



Assuming that we have to deal with a flower so 

 as to render it fertilizable only by pollen from 

 another flower, in the first place, the stigma must 

 be rendered zmfertilizable by pollen from its own 

 stamens, the stamens there not being required to be 

 in juxtaposition with the pistil, must be moved out of 

 the way of insects who may visit the flower for the 

 sake of its nectar, — and lastly, suitable pollen must 

 be provided in another flower of the same species, 

 in such a position that it is certain to be brought 

 into contact with the pistil we wish to act upon. 



All this is precisely what is done in the case of 

 these dimorphic and trimorphic flowers. A more 

 beautiful instance of design is not, I believe, to be 

 found in all the kingdom of Nature. 



Many other dimorphic plants have been described, 

 and many more doubtless remain to be discovered. 

 Those I have mentioned are the best known cases, 

 and the ones which have been most carefully and 

 thoroughly investigated. Moreover, the plants are 

 all very common, and any one interested in the 

 subject, and who has time and patience to do so, 

 can easily examine specimens and make experiments 

 for himself. The whole subject of the fertilization 

 of plants is an extremely interesting one, and any 

 new discovery, even the apparently most trivial, can 

 scarcely fail of having important relations to some 

 of the great questions of the day, as to hybridism 

 and the origin of species. 



" THE VIPER SWALLOWING ITS YOUNG." 



T3 EADERS of Land and Water are aware that 

 -"-* ; for years past the question has been discussed 

 in these columns and elsewhere, whether or not the 

 old viper swallows her young to shelter them from 

 approaching danger. More than one credible wit- 

 ness has stoutly maintained that he has seen the 

 little vipers enter their mother's mouth, and a great 

 many more have stated that they knew some one 

 else who said he had. Certain it is, that the asser- 

 tion has obtained a considerable amount of popular 

 credence, in spite of the contrary opinion of many 

 good naturalists that the act is almost physically 

 impossible. Specimens of vipers have from time to 

 time been sent to Mr. Buckland and others in 

 support of the wide-spread belief referred to ; but, 

 somehow or another, every one of them has assisted 

 to prove it to be a fallacy and illusion. Many have, 

 it is true, contained young ones ; but they have al- 

 ways been — not in the stomach — but in the recep- 

 tacle where unborn progeny might be expected to 

 be found ; and when the mother has been killed or 



injured by violence, they have escaped from the 

 natural orifice, and not from the mouth. Mr. 

 Buckland describes, in Laud and Water, vol. viii. 

 p. 202, an interesting dissection which we made 

 together of a slow-worm full of young ones, and he 

 there repeated his offer of a guinea to any person 

 who will send him a viper that has been seen to 

 swallow its young— a string to be tied tightly round 

 the neck to prevent their exit. 



I received to-day, by South-Western Railway, a 

 small box labelled — 



" Seeing is believing ! ! ! Viper killed with live 

 young in stomach ! I ! Killed this morning, 18th of 

 August, 1870." It was accompanied by the follow- 

 ing letter : — 



" My dear Sir, — I have had a viper sent me to- 

 day, said to be full of young live vipers ; the man 

 who killed it cannot positively swear that he saw 

 the young vipers crawl clown their parent's throat, 

 but he followed the viper into a hole, dug it out 

 and killed it. He then saw the young vipers en- 

 deavouring to crawl out of the mouth, so he tied its 

 throat ; and in this state I send it to you, having 

 heard you express your incredulity of the popular 

 opinion of the viper swallowing its young, that 

 you may yourself test the fact in this instance, and 

 report whether or no the young vipers are really in 

 the stomach or not — if they are in the stomach the 

 parent must have swallowed them. Your examina- 

 tion of the specimen will, I trust, help to settle this 

 too often disputed point in natural history. — W. 

 Penney (Poole, Aug. IS)." 



"At last," thought I, "the question is to be 

 solved. Young vipers seen endeavouring to crawl 

 out of their mother's mouth ; stopped in the act ; 

 and imprisoned in the oesophagus by a ligature tied 

 tightly round the throat of the old one. Nothing 

 can be more complete ! As Buckland is in the 

 north, attending to his duties as Commissioner of 

 Scotch Pisheries, I cannot consult him. It will 

 never do for me to dissect this viper by myself. 1 1 

 I find young ones in the stomach, the naturalists 

 will declare either that they were placed there as a 

 hoax, or that I did not know the stomach from the 

 uterus ; and if I find the babies where they ought 

 to be, the true believers in the swallowing theory 

 will not even 'concede against their will,' but in 

 all probability ' will be of the same opinion still.' " 



So, having an appointment with my friend, J. K. 

 Lord, at the office of Land and Water, I took the 

 treasure with me, that we might carefully dissect it 

 together. On opening the box, 1 found a fine 

 female viper measuring 25 in. in length ; the stomach 

 slightly distended, and the throat tied round tightly 

 with string close to the head. Severing this liga- 

 ture, and controlling my own impatience and that 

 of my colleague, I carefully made an incision with 

 knife and scissors through the outer skin along the 



