26 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the facility with which they increased by cultivation 

 made them so plentiful and cheap in London that 

 even the common people despised them, although 

 when first introduced they were said to be a dainty fit 

 for a queen. In the " Bath Society Papers," vol. iv., 

 Mr. Nehemiah Bartley.near Bristol, in 1787, gives an 

 account of some experiments he made in cultivating 

 this plant as an agricultural crop, and states they 

 are about equal in value to potatoes for feeding 

 youug pigs. But their chief recommendations are 

 the certainty of a crop, as they will flourish in 

 almost any soil— in the corners of fields and other 

 waste places. Under favourable circumstances, 

 ten to twelve tons per acre have been grown. 



The stems of this plant grow to a considerable 

 height, and their fibre might probably be found 

 valuable for making paper ; the leaves are stated 

 to contain nitre. In the tubers a chemical sub- 

 stance is found, called Inuline, which is organized, 

 according to Raspail, like common starch, but 

 stands, to a certain extent, in opposition to that 

 substance, which it replaces in the root system of 

 the composition, and has not been detected in any 

 other tribe. Iodine gives it a yellow tint. Inuline 

 was discovered by Valentine Rose in 1804. The 

 Jerusalem Artichoke multiplies very quickly, and is 

 with difficulty cleared out of the land where it has 

 once been planted. It very seldom blossoms in this 

 temperate climate ; the flowers resemble a small 

 sunflower. 



Hampden G. Glasspoole. 



NAVAL NATURAL HISTORY. 



/"\N first going to sea, now many years ago, fresh 

 ^ from college, and with that usual smattering 

 of natural history which our medical students then 

 received — consisting, for the most part, of long words, 

 the meaning of which was not always clear to them — 

 I was frequently astonished to find how little I 

 knew of the popular aspect of the science which was 

 my favourite stud}-, and had sometimes to blush for 

 my ignorance before the old ,: salts " on board, more 

 especially as to my knowledge of ichthyology. Such 

 occasions have led me to think that did the pro- 

 fessor of natural history take a hint from his bo- 

 tanical colleagues, and institute excursions, say to 

 Billingsgate or the Brighton Aquarium, once or 

 twice during the session, he would teach more on 

 his fish subjects than he possibly can from the mum- 

 mified or wizened-looking specimens which he ex- 

 hibits in the class-room ; or, at all events, the 

 student would learn more of the popular names of 

 his " subjects," which he would find of infinite use in 

 pursuing his after-studies. 



The man-of-war's-man is a good practical natural 

 historian ; and as the entomologist and botanist may 

 learn many things from the children in the green 



lanes and by the hedgerows, so the lovers of the fish 

 world often find valuable instructors in the working 

 fisherman or the old sailor. But " Jack's " natural 

 history is not exactly that of the schools ; at least 

 not of the modern schools. His is more of the 

 Gilbert White type— a few plain, well-ascertained 

 facts, a little mythology, and a terse vernacular 

 nomenclature, constituting his stock-in-trade. His 

 learning is chiefly of a traditional order ; for although, 

 he has roamed over the world, and mayhap spent a 

 quarter of a century on the " briny " without having 

 ever seen a sea-serpent, yet his faith in the existence 

 of the great " ichthyophidiau" is unbounded ; for " Did 

 not all hands see it on board of the old Dsedalus?" 

 His classification is not quite modern, for no amount 

 of argument would convince him that a whale is not 

 simply a " big fish "; indeed, not long since, a post- 

 captain in the Royal Navy openly challenged the 

 writer for proofs to the contrary. Their nomencla- 

 ture, too, is sadly defective; the term dolphin, for 

 instance, may signify one of three animals, two of 

 them belonging to widely different genera ; but it is 

 only an advanced individual who applies this term to 

 the long-snouted cetacean Delphinus. The porpoises 

 and dolphins which disport themselves round the 

 ship in shoals, are variously termed "grampuses," 

 " porpuses," or " bottlenoses," and it is for the 

 scomberoid Coryphene that the term "dolphin" is 

 usually reserved by sailors. Of " black fish" there 

 are many ; two belong to the Scomberidse, Scomber 

 thynnus, or the well-known Tunny-fish, and Centra- 

 tophus morio, a spindle-shaped fish about eighteen 

 inches long, sometimes found on our own coasts, 

 and which is perhaps best entitled to the appellation, 

 being of a blackish colour on the body, with in- 

 tensely black dorsal fins. Two Atlantic P/iyseler 

 tursio and Grampus Cuvieri, and two Pacific delphi- 

 noids, Globiocephalus intermedins and G. macroryhn- 

 cus, also answer to the name, the latter being the 

 " black fish " of the South Sea whalers ; but the 

 animal to which the term is most commonly applied 

 is, no doubt, Cuvier's grampus. The young natu- 

 ralist in the Mediterranean will not always recognize 

 his ".flying-fish" in the spiny-finned Bactylopterus, 

 which can be said to "fly " through courtesy alone; 

 this attribute being properly applied to one of the 

 Pike family, Exocatusvolitans, which both astonishes 

 and amuses by its long, rapid, and graceful flights 

 when evading its pursuers ; and, apropos of this fish, 

 of wbich probably more has been written than of 

 any other, 1 believe I have myself observed, and 

 have been confirmed in my observations by many 

 intelligent seamen, that the Exoccetus not only has 

 the power of altering the direction of its flight 

 whilst in the air, but is also able to rise from a 

 lower to a higher altitude without cither re- 

 entering the water or wetting its wings. This, 

 however, has long been a disputed matter. 



Collingwood, in his " Wanderings of a Natu- 



