HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



279 



new " Rochdale Field Naturalists' Journal " (a penny 

 monthly) in proof of what we have said. It is a 

 credit both to the society and the town. 



"The Garner, and Science Recorders' 

 Journal," is the name given to a new and ably- 

 conducted monthly, edited by Mr. A. Ramsay, 

 F.G.S. The principal aim of this magazine is to 

 organise systematic investigation. 



The paper read before the Essex Field Club last 

 October, by Mr. Worthington Smith, F.L.S. &c, 

 (which attracted a good deal of attention), called 

 "Botanical Mare's-Nests, chiefly Fungological," was 

 reprinted at length in " The Gardening World " for 

 October. 



Baron von Mueller, the distinguished Govern- 

 ment Botanist of Victoria, has recently described a 

 new cycadaceous plant from South-Western Australia, 

 which he has named after Professor Dyer, of Kew, 

 Eiiccphalartos Dyeri. The same botanist has also 

 just described a new Papuan Bassia, -which yields an 

 edible fruit. Pie thinks that New Guinea is almost 

 sure to yield from some of its Bassias and other 

 sapotaceous trees new sources for gutta-percha. 



It is with much sorrow we have to announce the 

 death (the result of an accident) of Dr. W. B. 

 Carpenter, F.R.S., the distinguished physiologist 

 and author, at the age of 72. 



Mr. Clement L. Wragge has been commissioned 

 by the Queensland Government to visit and report 

 "as to the best means of establishing Meteorological 

 Stations in Queensland, including Cape York Pen- 

 insula and Torres Straits." Mr. Wragge, who lately 

 returned from a scientific expedition on his own 

 account to North Queensland, commenced this im- 

 portant work early last month, and was expected to 

 reach Normanton, in the Gulf of Carpentaria, about 

 the 15th of last October. 



We are sorry to announce the death of Dr. Walter 

 Flight, F.R.S., at the early age of forty-four. His 

 "History of Meteorites," which appeared in the 

 "Geological Magazine," first made him known to 

 readers of popular science. 



MICROSCOPY. 



Glass-Covers in the Tropics. — Never bring 

 your thin glass into the tropics bedded in lime or 

 chalk. I have seen many ounces of glass destroyed, 

 or apparently so, by such means. Shortly after the 

 glass has reached me, or even when received, the face 

 begins to deteriorate, becoming first iridescent, and 

 then opaque, like ground-glass, and for the same 

 reason, the breaking up, not scratching, of the 

 surface. This can be seen at once under the quarter 

 inch. I noticed that glass which had been used to 



cover down did not fail in the same way as glass from 

 the same box, unused and retained in the lime. 

 Taking the hint, my last supply was sent out glued 

 together by a little clove oil, run in between the 

 plates by capillary attraction. I have had this last 

 lot three months now, and the covers are perfect. 

 — I. IV. P. 



Development of Flea's Egg. — The following 

 are the references to the figures last month : Figure 



175, First segment, head and mouth organs of larva 

 X 250, a base of tubercle on the back of head and 

 seen through the structure of larva, b b b b, Tubercles 

 which assist in locomotion, c, Mandibles. Figure 



176, Mandibles of same X 250. Figure 179, Newly 

 emerged male flea X 25. Figures 177 and 178 are 

 each magnified 25 diameters. 



ZOOLOGY. 



The Mollusca of Kerry. — The following list 

 of a collection of shells recently made in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Dingle, co. Kerry, is interesting on 

 account of the geographical position of that county, 

 and for comparison with the south of England lists. 

 Tapes aureus, Venus gallina (several), V. linota, 

 Lucina borealis, Tellina fabirfa, T. balthica (a worn 

 single valve), Cardium edule, C. exiguum, Pholas 

 Candida, Psammobia ferroensis, Mactra subtruncata, 

 Pecten maxi/nus, P. varius (three varieties, the first 

 purplish-brown, mottled with lighter, the second 

 whitish with purplish-brown markings, and the third 

 orange-brown). Scalafia communis, Trochus zizyphinus 

 (several), T. magus, T.cinerarius, Buccinum undatum, 

 Cyprcea Europcca (both spotted and spotless forms), 

 Rissoa membranacea (many), R. parva, var. intemcpta 

 (one), Lacuna divaricata (many), Apporhais pes- 

 pelecani, Nassa reticulata, A T . incrassata, Littorina 

 rudis, L. obtusata, Purpura lapillus, Murex erinaceus, 

 Actaon tornatilis. There were also a few landshells, 

 Helix ericetorum, and its variety alba, and Cochlicolla 

 acuta. In the above list of marine shells there are 

 four species, L. divaricata, C. exiguum, P. Candida, 

 and T. balthica, not mentioned in Messrs. Smart & 

 Cooke's list of Scilly Island Shells, but all these four 

 are found in Kent, while eight others, V. gallina, V. 

 lincta, A. pes-pelecani, L. borealis, T. magus, P. 

 ferroensis, M. subtruncata, and T. aureus, are not 

 included in the Kentish fauna, although five . of them 

 have been taken on the Sussex coast. Wyville 

 Thompson gives a list of mollusca dredged forty miles 

 off Valentia, in no fathoms. It is a very remarkable 

 one, and includes several species not before known as 

 British, and others extremely rare. These are some 

 of them, Necera rostrata, Verticordia abyssicola, Denta- 

 lium abyssorum, Buccinum Humphreysianum, Pleuro- 

 toma carinata, Ostrea cochlearis, Aporrha'is serresianus, 

 Murex lamellosus, and Trochus granulatus. — T. Z>, 

 A. Cockerell. 



