HA R D WICKE ' S S CIE NCR -GOSS IR. 



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Parasitic Fungi on Insects. — Professor Hagen, 

 of Harvard, describes some experiments that had been 

 made by Mr. J. H. Burns and others, and comes to the 

 following conclusions : I . That the common housefly 

 is often killed by a fungus, and that in epizootics a 

 large number of insects which live in the same locality 

 are killed by the same fungus. 2. That the fungus 

 of the housefly works as well as yeast for baking and 

 brewing purposes. 3. That the application of yeast 

 on insects produces in them a fungus which becomes 

 fatal to the insects. 4. That, in the experiment made 

 by Mr. J. H. Burns, all potato beetles sprinkled with 

 diluted yeast died from the eighth to the twelfth day, 

 and that the fungus was found in the vessels of the 

 wings. 



Knotty Cushion Starfish. — Mr. E. Howard 

 Birchall, of the Tynemouth Aquarium, has just for- 

 warded to me for this aquarium about a dozen very 

 beautiful examples of the knotty cushion starfish 

 [Goniaster equestris) taken off the Northumberland 

 coast. The late Professor Edward Forbes, in his 

 history of British starfishes, describes this species as 

 " one of the rarest and most beautiful of our native 

 starfishes." The specimens sent by Mr. Birchall are 

 pretty even in size and are about six inches in diameter. 

 They are of a good rich orange colour, but I fear none 

 of the specimens are sufficiently " strong alive " to 

 hope for their recovery after their long journey from 

 Shields to London. — John T. Carrington. 



The Exploration of Socotra. — The Committee 

 of the British Association have appointed Dr. I. B. 

 Balfour, Professor of Botany in Glasgow University, 

 as naturalist for the exploration of Socotra, off the 

 east coast of Africa. Dr. Balfour left for Aden, and 

 thence to Socotra, on the ninth of January. 



" The Midland Naturalist." — With the Janu- 

 ary number, this spirited and ably edited periodical 

 enters upon the third volume. It contains articles on 

 " The Age of the Pennine Chain," by E. Wilson, 

 F.G.S. ; "On the Structures of Pitcher Plants," by 

 Lawson Tait ; " Cryptogamic Flora of Warwickshire," 

 by J. E. Bagnall ; " The Magpie," by W. B. Strug- 

 nell, together with reviews, notes, meteorological 

 notices of the Midland Counties by W. J. Harrison, 

 F.G.S., &c, altogether a cheap sixpennyworth. 



"The Popular Science Review." — The quar- 

 terly number of this excellent periodical, dated January, 

 is to hand. Among other articles of permanent value 

 are " Notes on the Argentine Republic," by Charles 

 Orland, chiefly of a geological and mineralogical 

 character ; " Meteors and Meteor Systems," by W. F. 

 Denning; "The Law of Association in the Animal 

 Kingdom," by Mr. E. Perrier ; and "The Dinosauria," 

 . by Professor Seeley. The latter is a popular and 

 exhaustive review of these ancient reptiles, showing 

 their affinities to birds, and their general and special 

 character. 



Northern Stone Crab. — I have recently re- 

 ceived for the Royal Aquarium several consignments 

 of Lithodes arctica, the northern stone crab, from the 

 Northumberland coast, where they occur not infre- 

 quently. Both sexes are represented, and may easily 

 be defined by the curious arrangement of the ab- 

 dominal segments of the female. Most of the females 

 are now carrying the ova, which appear to be well 

 developed. I shall be glad to communicate with 

 any student of marine zoology, for I frequently have 

 duplicate fresh specimens, which are dead on arrival 

 from the coast, and which might be useful. — John T. 

 Carrington, Royal Aquarium, Westminster, S. W. 



BOTANY. 



New Species of British Fungi. — The "Scottish 

 Naturalist " states that at the meeting of the Crypto- 

 gamic Society at Forres, the following species of 

 fungi, new to the British flora, were discovered : — 

 HyJnum scabrosum, Fr. ; Hypomyces violaceus, Tul. ; 

 and Helvella infula, Schceff. Dr. Buchanan White 

 states that during a visit to Rannoch last September, 

 he found some specimens of Ustilago succisa, a species 

 not hitherto found in Britain. It is parasitic on the 

 anthers of Suecisa scabiosa, which are filled with the 

 white spores, so as to render the parasite rather 

 conspicuous. 



Notes on Potamogeton nitens (Weber).— In 

 our late Exchange Club parcels, many excellent 

 specimens of this species were sent out, collected in 

 Loch Ascog, Isle of Bute, where it was originally 

 discovered by Mr. G. E. Hunt, of Manchester. We 

 may remark some of the specimens were evidently con- 

 fused with P. heterofhyllus (Sch.). In the " Student's 

 Flora " it is made into a sub-species, in connection 

 with Heterophyllus ; placed side by side (British 

 examples) there is evidently a wide specific difference. 



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Fig. 36.— a, stip. of P. Jieterophyllus ; b, stip. of P. nitens. 

 Both from Bute specimens. 



Characters from dried specimens : Nitens (Weber) : 

 stem branched, L. all submersed, alternate, rounded, 

 and clasping at their base, recurved, lower slips, with 

 three prominent ribs. Peduncles not thickened up- 

 wards. Heterophyllus (Sch.) : stem much branched, L. 

 submersed opposite, not clasping at the base, upper L. 

 floating, coriaceous, lower slips unicostate, lanceolate, 

 peduncles thickened upwards. Mr. Bennett kindly 

 suggests, "It is misleading to say nitens differs 

 chiefly by absence of floating, or coriaceous leaves ; 



