HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



167 



months, some only days, but sooner or later they lose 

 their playfulness, become dull, gasp at the surface, 

 become subject to a filament of apparently fungoid 

 growth, and in a day or two die. I have seen this all 

 attributed to a want of oxygen, but, if it be so in this 

 case, how is it some live so long before the deficiency 

 manifests itself in them? I am anxious to keep fish 

 of some kind ; perhaps some one who has passed 

 through the same experience will aid me. — H. 



Weatiier-lore. — An old distich says, 



" With a dry May, and a moist June, 

 The farmer will whistle a merry tune." 



May we not look forward hopefully to the result 

 implied by the above lines ? — M. Moggridge. 



Wren's Nest at Christmas.— In Science- 

 Gossip for February there is a note about a wren's 

 nest found at Christmas — on February 18th, 1878, I 

 perceived a wren building in a shed ; on the 24th the 

 nest was completed and contained one egg. The 

 weather, however, becoming very severe the nest was 

 forsaken. On March 20, 1879, I found a song- 

 thrush's nest containing five eggs, upon which the 

 female bird was sitting ; in a day or two I visited the 

 nest again, and found that it contained four young 

 birds, but on the return of frost these birds all died. 

 — G. Deivar. 



NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS. 



To Correspondents and Exchangers. — As we now 

 publish Science-Gossip a week earlier than heretofore, we 

 cannot possibly insert in the following number any communica- 

 tions which reach us later than the 9th of the previous month. 



To Anonymous Querists. — We receive so many queries 

 which do not bear the writers' names that we are forced to 

 adhere to our rule of not noticing them. 



To Dealers and others. — We are always glad to treat 

 dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general 

 ground as amateurs, in so far as the " exchanges " offered are fair 

 exchanges. Bat it is evident that, when their offers are simply 

 disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of 

 advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of 

 "exchanges" which cannot be tolerated. 



B. J. W. (Southsea).— Procure "Adulteration of Food, &c," 

 published by Routledge, London. Price is. 



Nemo. — Luzula Borreri and Polygala oxyptera (R.). The 

 Luzula is a very imperfect specimen, but we believe it to be 

 typical Borreri. 



R. F. T. (Malvern Link). — Baker's monograph will be found 

 in the "Naturalist," vol. i., published at Huddersfield. 



J. J. (Shepherdswell). — You should secure Hooker's " Stu- 

 dent's Flora ; " the work you mention will not help you much. It 

 is the wood geranium [Geranium sylvaticnm, L.), with the 

 flowers slightly altered in colour and size. 



Coronilla (Ringwood). — It is attacked by an insect called 

 the scale by gardeners ; afterwards when decaying it will pro- 

 bably be infested with some micro- fungi. 



Salix. — The willows are too young to be determined with 

 certainty ; No. 2 is Salix cinerea. Will you kindly send others 

 more mature ? and we shall be glad to help you. 



Henry Coates. — Your shells appear to be Pisidium amni- 

 cum. 



M. E. T. — The " Rose of Jericho" was recently on sale in a 

 shop at Brighton, but we cannot inform you which. You had 

 best offer something in exchange for a specimen in our Exchange 

 column. 



V. G. — No flowers were in the letter containing your query. 



A. L. B. — Article to hand ; it shall appear next month. 



Eggs. — We shall be glad if the exchanger who offered the 

 eggs of black grouse, peregrine falcon, and other eggs in our 

 Exchange column for June, but who failed to give his address, 

 will send it to us, that we may forward letters addressed to us 

 for him respecting exchange. 



R. B. — The Anthropological Society is now merged in the 

 Anthropological Institute. Write to the secretary of the latter 

 for terms of membership, &c. 



A. W. — The hair of the Persian cat had the eggs of fleas at- 

 tached. You cannot do better than use the preparation of 

 Pyrethrum. 



F. L.— You should get cardboard cells for dry mounting from 

 any of the dealers in microscopical material whose advertise- 

 ments appear in our pages. 



H. W. D. wishes to make some microscopical drawings on 

 glass. Perhaps some of our readers can recommend him a book 

 which gives the best mode of proceeding and the best kind of 

 colours to use. 



R. Cramp. — You cannot do better than take in the " Popular 

 Science Review," the oldest and best of our periodicals which 

 deal chiefly with natural science. 



Bunaccord. — The best elementary book on mosses (with 20 

 coloured plates of the chief species) is Stark's " British Mosses," 

 published by Routledge at js. 6d. 



H. G. Keighley. — Carpenter's "Physiology" is, we believe, 

 now out of print, but we doubt not you could get a copy from 

 W. Wesley, natural history bookseller, 28 Essex Street, Strand. 

 Huxley's " Physiology " is published by Macmillan, at 4s. 6d. 

 Flower's "Osteology of the Mammalia" is the best you could 

 procure. It is published by Macmillan at (we believe) -js. 6d. 



J. T. A. — We presume you mean Yarmouth, in Norfolk. If 

 so you will find no fossils in the cliffs there, as they are com- 

 posed of Middle Drift sands. At Aldeby, a few miles away, 

 you may find shells of the Upper Norwich crag (Pliocene), and 

 at Southwold remains of the pre-glacial forest bed. The neigh- 

 bourhood of Norwich is very rich in chalk and crag fosiils. 

 Felixstowe, near Ipswich, is a capital place for collecting red 

 crag, London clay, and other fossils. The mineral fragments 

 enclosed are quartz. 



James Partington. — You must mean sulphate of eserine, 

 not of eresine, which latter we cannot hear of. Sulphate of 

 eserine is an alkaloid, obtained from the Calabar bean, and is 

 employed in ophthalmic practice. It is said to have the power of 

 contracting the pupils of the eye, and is therefore the reverse of 

 atropia, which dilates the pupil. 



"Subscriber." — A cladode is a flattened branch or stem, as 

 the leaf-like branches of Rtiscus aculeatus (" Butcher's Broom"), 

 Epipkyllum, &c. A sympode is a pseud-axis, when at each 

 bifurcation one branch becomes more strongly developed than 

 the other. The sympodium may consist of bifurcation belong- 

 ing to the same side of the successive dichotomies, either to the 

 left or the right. 



EXCHANGES. 



A GOOD triple nose-piece and a little cash, in exchange for 

 a good one-inch objective. — J. S. Harrison, The Gazette office, 

 Malton, Yorkshire. 



Mounted slides of Borago zcylanica (Linn.), hairs rising from 

 silvery calcareous tubercles ; Mauritius. A most beautiful opaque 

 object. Send list of slides for exchange to Rev. A. C. Smith, 

 Crowboro', near Tunbridge Wells. 



Will any kind reader put me in correspondence with any one 

 willing to supply some spawn of goldfish ? Will give most liberal 

 exchange to suit microscopists, amateur gardeners, botanists, 

 algologists, or persons using the magic lantern, &c. — T. 

 McGann, Burren, Co. Clare. 



A ' large number of plants as per 7th ed. L.C. Lists 

 exchanged or sets of from 100 to 400 for offers. — B. M. O., 

 43 York Road, Hove, Brighton. 



Wanted, British and foreign lepidoptera. Exchange shells, 

 or would give cash. — J. P., 29 Great Coram Street, Brunswick 

 Square, London, W.C. 



Will any of the readers of Science-Gossip be kind enough 

 to let me have a good specimen of the English or Highgate 

 copalite, in exchange for leaf fungi, or same of our local 

 minerals ? — H. W. Hollenburgh, 320 Spring Garden Street, 

 Reading, Pa., United States. 



The "Geological Magazine" for 1S77, perfectly clean, in 

 exchange for geological or other science works. — T. Shipman, 

 34 St. Ann's Valley, Nottingham. 



Setting-boards, store cases, B. coleoptera, mounted micro 

 objects in exchange for unmounted material, slides, and acces- 

 sories. — F. S. Lyddon, 32 High Street, Warminster. 



A number of herbarium specimens of British mosses for 

 exchange. — B. B. Scott, 24 Seldon Street, Kensington, Liver- 

 pool. 



Superior anatomical and pathological sections, stained and 

 ready for mounting, in exchange for living parasites and other 

 unmounted micro material. — Henry Vial, Crediton. 



Soundings from West Indian ports, also beautiful moss from 

 West Indies. Send slide or good micro material of any descrip- 

 tion, especially diatoms, foraminifera, and lepidoptera. — B. B. 

 Scott, 24 Seldon Street, Kensington, Liverpool. 



Wanted, to purchase a few specimens of the Bufo calamita, 

 commonly called or known by the name of the natterjack toad 

 or mephitic toad. — W. B. Scott, Chudleigh, Devon. 



For Acarus, Trickinus, or eggs of flies, spiders, or butterflies 

 mounted, J. Aitken, of Urmston, Manchester, will give slides 

 of mounted transparent sections of coal plants showing structure 

 beautifully. 



Wanted, Vol. I. of Cassell's " Magazine of Art " in exchange 



