HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



189 



Fish in Aquaria. — With regard to keeping fish 

 in aquaria, I think your correspondent would r.ot 

 find much difficulty with minnows. I have a very 

 small aquarium, consisting only of a glass propagator 

 turned upside down, and set on a wooden stand ; but 

 I have kept minnows in it for the allotted length of 

 their lives, viz., three years. It is necessary to be 

 careful about two things. (1.) The balance of life. 

 Fishes breathe oxygen, and expel carbonic acid ; 

 plants absorb oxygen as animals do, but they also 

 absorb carbonic acid, and from the carbonic acid 

 they remove the pure carbon, converting it into 

 vegetable tissue, which gives out free oxygen. So 

 that plants exhale more oxygen than they absorb, 

 which makes the deficiency required for the fishes. If 

 the balance of animal and vegetable life be properly 

 attended to, the plants and fishes will be healthy, and 

 the water so clear that it need never be changed. 

 The fish must not be over-crowded ; one small fish to 

 a gallon of water is a safe average. (2.) The feeding 

 of fishes. I feed my fishes with worms cut in small 

 pieces, which they eat greedily and thrive upon. 

 When worms are scarce I use oatmeal, but it is not so 

 successful. I have heard that raw meat answers the 

 same purpose. Care must be taken that no more 

 food is put into the aquarium than the fish will 

 consume, as it soon putrifies and poisons the water. 

 The fish need only be fed twice a week. I have 

 tried to keep minnows, eels, and dace ; the minnows 

 and eels were successful, but the dace being a 

 delicate fish soon died. Of course the eels were 

 very small. — C. E. Michelson. 



Marine Aquarium. — Those who have or are 

 about to construct a marine aquarium, will be glad to 

 hear that the Great Eastern Railway Company will 

 supply pure sea water from Lowestoft in three gallon 

 cans at sixpence per three gallons, free to any station 

 on their line. Orders can be sent to Liverpool Street 

 station or any station-master on the line. — John H. 

 Webb. 



Weather Folk-Lore. — The fact that May has 

 been dry, and June wet this year, affords no ground 

 for the presumption that the weather during the 

 ensuing months will be seasonable. If easterly and 

 north-easterly winds prevail throughout the month of 

 May, on their giving place to the south-westerly 

 winds of June, there are generally heavy showers. 

 On the average of many years however, the rainfall 

 during the two months is very nearly equal. As a 

 rule, little dependence need be placed upon old facts 

 about the weather. Some of them are mere rhyming 

 descriptions of natural prognostics, as 



"Evening red and morning grey, 

 Are certain signs of a fair day." 



" Mackerel scales and grey mares' tails, 

 Make lofty ships to carry low sails." 



But those especially which base their predictions 

 upon the state of the weather on certain days, weeks, 

 or months, are little to be relied on. — J. A. B. 

 Oliver. 



Carnation Grass.— F. H. Arnold in the present 

 number of Science-Gossip asks what species of 

 Carex is called "Carnation Grass." If he refers to 

 " Treasury of Botany," under head of "Grass " he 

 will find Carnation grass is Carex glauca ; and 

 others, " Carex glauca, Scop., glaucous heath carex" 

 (C. recurva, Huds. S. M. E. B.).-— T. B. W., Brighton. 



kindly tells me that Carex panic ea, "the pink -leaved 

 grass, in the older works on Botany, is known by the 

 name of carnation grass in West Sussex." Another 

 suggests that the plant in question is either C.panicea 

 or C. glauca, abounding often in the ova of the 

 Distoma which occasions the fluke in sheep. The 

 latter, which is one of the most common of our sedges 

 in marshy ground, is perhaps the more probable, and 

 Smith speaks of its leaves truly as " much resembling 

 the foliage of pinks and carnations." — F. H. A. 



Confervoid Growth in Aquaria. — H. will 

 doubtless find some assistance by reading M. W. 

 Alford Lloyd's paper on "Gold-fish," printed in the 

 " Animal World" for April, 1880.— IV. 



IV. King. 



Carnation Grass.— I have to thank several 

 correspondents for information as to this term. One 



Hawthorn Bloom. — In the part of Cumberland 

 in which I reside — the central part of the county, 

 there is this year, which is very unusually the case, an 

 entire absence of the bloom of the hawthorn. In this 

 neighbourhood the hedges are composed almost 

 entirely of hawthorn ; and generally you may trace 

 them with the eye for long distances, running along 

 the sides of the roads or across the fields, looking as 

 white as if covered with a sheet. This season, it is 

 not only that the blossoms are sparse, but there is an 

 entire absence of them. Has any reader of Science- 

 Gossip observed this in any places? Has it been 

 occasioned by the young shoots not having been 

 sufficiently ripened during the ungenial season of 

 last year, or is it the effect of the long-continued low 

 temperature of the present spring-? "Many haws, 

 many snows," says the proverb ; and if so, then, per 

 contra, we shall not see a single flake during the 

 coming winter. — R. IV. 



The Preservation of Crustacea. — I should 

 like to add the following note on the above subject : 

 It is most important that all specimens should be 

 well washed in fresh water before being left to dry, 

 as the salt often forms a white crust upon them, 

 spoiling their appearance. — L. E. Adams. 



Colours of Galls. — I should much like to know 

 from whence are derived the beautiful colours of the 

 cherry-gall and oak-apple. That the rose bedeguar 

 should be adorned with scarlet and green is, I suppose, 

 a fact easily accounted for, inasmuch as these colours, 

 had they not been diverted from their proper course, 

 would have been displayed in the petals and leaves. 

 But that many of the galls which infest the oak, whose 

 leaves are simple green and flowers colourless, should 

 be so brilliantly coloured, is to me a curious puzzle. 

 — A. M. P. 



Plover's Egg. — I have added to my collection 

 this last month, an egg of the common plover or lap- 

 wing ( Vanelhis cristatns), the ground colour of which 

 is white, sparingly dotted with small spots of black. 

 Brown in any shade is entirely absent. The egg was 

 quite fresh when blown. Have any of your oologist 

 readers met with similar varieties ? — C. D. Wolstai- 

 holme. 



Moths. — Can any of your correspondents inform 

 me what moth it is, the female of which answers to 

 this description ? ' ' Upper wings pale yellowish- 

 brown, with chains of. brick-red spots ; length from 

 tip to tip 2 inches and about 3 lines. Lower wings 

 very pale brown, clearly veined ; antenna; plain ; 

 about \ inch in length." I caught it depositing white 

 globular eggs on a nasturtium. I have looked in 

 several museums and many entomological works, but 

 I find no reference to it. — H. C. Brooke. 



