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HARDWICKE'S S CIEN C E-GO SS IF. 



LNov. 1, 1S70. 



advancement of natural science. As a general rule, 

 naturalists are not immensely rich people, and the 

 vast difference of sample post and letter rate can- 

 not but be felt by all of us in a greater or less 

 degree ; in fact, the transfer of specimens will be 

 greatly retarded, and most assuredly, the Post-office 

 will not be a gainer by the alteration. It is simply 

 absurd to talk or think of sending such small parcels 

 as weigh only a few ounces a long distance by rail- 

 way, as the cost — not to mention the inconvenience 

 of obtaining them in remote localities — would be 

 utterly incompatible with the sometimes worthless- 

 ness of the objects sent. The " sample post " has 

 hitherto supplied, to a certain extent, this great de- 

 sideratum ; and the privilege was alike known and 

 appreciated more by the working " millions " than 

 by the "upper ten thousand," and I cannot imagine 

 that the revenue was a loser by conferring such a 

 public benefit. I believe I am expressing the sen- 

 timents of a very great number of persons in what 

 I have said ; and it seems to me that if the matter 

 in its true and unpolished light was laid before the 

 Postmaster-general, he would be led to reconsider 

 his decision with regard to the new regulations of 

 the "sample post. 55 — G. B. C, Ringioood. 



Dragon-Flies. — It may perhaps interest your 

 correspondent J. D. Groves to know that I also saw 

 a large black-spotted dragon-fly in town about the 

 31st of August, opposite the General Post-office, at 

 noon-day ; and a few days before one was captured 

 in Thrcadneedle-street, E.C., by some boys — it was 

 described to me as being a very large brown one. 

 With regard to their being at so great a distance from 

 water, I may mention that they are frequently met 

 with in such situations during the latter part of 

 August and September. — S. A. Harry. 



The Brain of Insects. — " That somewhere in 

 the head of an insect resides a power of volition, 

 whereby the movements of the body are directed, 

 under ordinary circumstances, is more than pro- 

 bable, 55 says Mr. Clifford, in the last number of 

 Science-Gossip. In my opinion, the existence of 

 this centre of volition in an insect's head is very 

 improbable; and it seems much more likely that the 

 system of ganglia takes the place of a central brain. 

 I will give one of the reasons why I hold this 

 opinion : I have seen a common house-fly, whoso 

 head I had cut off by accident, when placed on its 

 legs, rub its two fore-legs together, as we often see 

 flies do on the window. This must have required 

 the action of the will ; but a centre of volition in the 

 severed head could not have exerted any influence 

 on the body, therefore, the source of volition must 

 have existed in the body itself. — A. J. 31. A. 



Scene in the New Eorest, Hampshire. — 

 " When they were tired of the sea there was the 

 great moor and the forest to fly to. The time to 

 see the old moor in its greatest beauty was about 

 the middle of May, when for a little time the flowers 

 of early and later spring meet, as it were, to hold a 

 festival. The sun would then shine out warm and 

 bright, and the wind came blowing across acres of 

 golden gorse, sweetened with its perfume, and 

 mixed, too, with the breath of the hawthorn. All 

 round, the gorse there twinkles for miles ; and by its 

 side, as if striving to overtop it, grows the little 

 'petty-whin, 5 with its yellow blossoms; and the 

 great holly and ' holm ' bushes stand out ever green, 

 budding with their clusters of little white waxen 

 flowers; whilst the knee-holm, as the butcher's 

 broom is there called, grows by their side, headed 



with crimson berries; and the 'black-heart' is 

 flowering with its pink bells, and the fern is shoot- 

 ing up its long crosier-headed stems. Great belts 

 of firs enclosed the oak woods, which then were 

 budding into the tenderest green, breaking into 

 J shades of delicate amber and gold, in strange con- 

 i trast to the deep dark green of the firs ; and the 

 J ' rainers,' as the bark-peelers were called, were then 

 busy, and here and there the felled oaks lay on the 

 i ground with their great naked white bones. 'Ech, 

 j faith, and my pretty leddy has a very pretty hand, 

 and it be's as sweet as the ' touchen-leaves' in the 

 | forest.'" 



Local Names of Plants. — As much has been 

 ' written lately in Science-Gossip as to common 

 names of plants, I send you the above extracts from 

 " The Cousins," a tale by Mr. J. Wise, author of a 

 : " History of the New Forest, 55 with which he was 

 well acquainted; the "Black-heart,"mentioned above 

 is perhaps the Bilberry (Vaccimiim Myrtillus) but 

 the "touchen-leaves" I know not, though probably 

 some Hampshire man may know their touch, and 

 the plant intended.— Edicin Lees, Green Hill Summit, 

 Worcester. 



Lfporids. — Whether hybrids can be obtained 

 between the rabbit and the hare has long been a 

 disputed question : the following communication 

 made last year by M. Eugene Guyot to the French 

 Academie des Science? Naturelles, ought to set the 

 matter at rest. " The production aud reproduction 

 of the leporid, as this hybrid has been named, have 

 been long contested, or, it should rather be said, 

 have been energetically denied. Nevertheless, they 

 are facts which must for the future occupy a place 

 in the anuals of natural history, as several of these 

 animals have been born under my own eyes, and I 

 possess at this moment genuine specimens. The 

 production of these hybrids is, it must be confessed, 

 rather a haphazard affair, as the hare and the rabbit 

 are by no means willing to pair. Still I am in a 

 position to affirm that it is far from an impossibility, 

 as proved by my own experiments conducted so 

 lately as November, 1868. Of former results I say 

 nothing ; they were not carried out under my own 

 observation, and they have been contested. 'Now, 

 however, I can speak of circumstances of the exact- 

 ness of which not a doubt can be entertained. The 

 animals are in my own possession, they were born 

 in my hutches, and from every point of view they 

 carry with them the undeniable seal of their origin. 

 In a word I possess two adult leporids, the offspring 

 of two female rabbits and the same male hare. 

 Seven in all were born." Can English rabbit- 

 keepers verify this statement? I know of the 

 existence of the so called hare-rabbit. 1 have often 

 had them in my possession, and splendid fellows 

 they are, with a very "hybridy" look, but I could 

 never trace their origin satisfactorily.— W. W. Spicer, 

 Havre. 



Isthmus of Panama.— " What a paradise of the 

 senses is this beautiful land! The constant rain 

 and the intense heat of the sun produce a vegeta- 

 tion more lovely and luxuriant than is to be seen 

 anywhere else in the world. Gigantic trees, maho- 

 gany, bamboos, palms of every variety, bananas, 

 tree-ferns, magnolias, tall grasses, and innumerable 

 flowering trees and shrubs, compose the forest, and 

 fringe the banks of the rivers ; while from the sur- 

 face of the swamps spring white, yellow, and blue 

 lilies of every size and description. Amid all this 

 glorious foliage, dart birds of brilliant plumage, and 





