HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



131 



possesses, however, many other common names, 

 being known as Virgin's Bower, Lady's Bower, 

 Old Man's Beard, Hedge Vine, and 'others. With 

 regard to the name Virgin's Bower there is some 

 difference of opinion. Eor instance, in Hard- 

 wicke's Science-Gossip of February, 1SG9, a 

 writer says, " Virgin's Bower undoubtedly refers to 

 the Blessed Virgin, and points to the Assumption," 

 whilst Dr. Prior, in his "Popular Names of British 

 Plants," says : " So named by Gerarde, as fitting to 

 be a bower for maidens, and with allusion perhaps 

 to Queen Elizabeth, but not, as we might be 

 tempted to imagine, to the Virgin Mary in a resting 

 scene on the way to Egypt, the frequent subject of 

 pictures." I am inclined to agree with the writer 

 of the article, because the plant is also called 

 Lady's Bower, and this name, Dr. Prior himself 

 admits, refers to the Blessed Virgin. The plant 

 is called Old Man's Beard, from its long feathery 

 awns, and Smoke Wood, from boys smoking its 

 porous stalks. The other names, Bind-with, Hedge 

 Vine, &C-, are self-interpreting. 



The Papaveraeese are so called from the Latin 

 word papaver, a poppy. Papaver rlxeas, the com- 

 mon Red Poppy, is named from the Greek verb 

 rheo, to flow or fall, on account of the speedy falling 

 off of the petals. Papaver sommferum (While 

 Poppy) is the sleep-bearing or sleep-producing 

 poppy, so called from its narcotic properties. An- 

 other of the Papaveracece is Glaucium, of which Glau- 

 cium luteum (the Yellow-horned Poppy), grows in the 

 Warren. The word glaukioiii according to Liddell 

 and Scott, who quote from. Dioscorides, meant the 

 juice of a plant, like the Horned Poppy. It is 

 derived from glankos, meaning pale blue or grey. 

 Dr. Hooker; in his " Student's Flora of the British 

 Islands," says that the plant was named Glaucium 

 (blue) from the hue of the plants, the flowers of 

 which are purple or yellow ; whilst Miss Pratt says 

 that it is so named from the glaucous or sea-green 

 hue of its foliage. I should be inclined to think 

 that the etymology given by Dr. Hooker is the 

 correct one. 



(To be continued?) 



THE FLYING SQUIRREL. 



(Pteromys rolucella.) 



"TXTHEN the last rays of the departing sun gild 

 » " the leafy tree-tops, or later, it may be, when 

 Night lets her sable curtain down, and pins it with 

 a star, out from some hidden hollow in the trees 

 there comes with a joyous bound our merry-hearted 

 pet, and reaching the outermost branch of his 

 home-tree, he literally spreads his wings, and sails 

 through the quiet air until another tree is reached, 

 and so, on and on, through the depths of the 

 forest. 



But not alone is he, when thus on his nightly 

 travels ; another and another of his kin come from 

 the same retreat, and young and old traverse in like 

 manner some well-known path, seeking while absent 

 for their daily food, and then, often late in the 

 night, coming back by the same route, chattering 

 like school-girls, as they dart, with marvellous 

 celerity, from bough to bough. 



But they do not now retire for the remainder of 

 the night ; far from it, for the little tramp they have 

 had seems only to have stretched their limbs ; and 

 now, their frolicking among the upper branches of 

 the trees is really indescribable. It would be hard 

 enough to give the details of their movements, if 

 plainly seen in broad day. Such a chance seldom or 

 never happens, and my own knowledge of what they 

 can do is derived solely from glimpses of them 

 during moonlight nights. 



When disturbed during the day, they are as stupid 

 as owls, for a little while ; when, realizing the situa- 

 tion, off they scamper, with an awkward gait, if on 

 the ground ; but using their " wings " to good 

 advantage, if in a tree among trees. From observa- 

 tions made in this way, I have satisGed myself that 

 this "flight power" of the Squirrel enables it to 

 preserve a horizontal position for several feet, before 

 the downward glide commences ; but the membrane 

 once expanded, is not moved, I think, until the 

 animal draws in its feet, to seize the branch it has 

 reached. A word more concerning this habit of 

 flying. I have twice met with individuals of this 

 species that were apparently reversions to the 

 ancestral non-flying squirrel. The membrane ex- 

 tending from the fore limbs to the hind limbs, that 

 acts as " wings," was not developed, and the fore limbs 

 were somewhat stouter than in the normal condition. 

 In their movements, these squirrels were more like 

 the true Sciwiiee; but, being associated with their 

 own kind, they tried to fly, aud, in reality, executed a 

 very graceful dive. These two non-flying squirrels 

 were both adults when captured, and died in a few 

 days after being caged. 



Years of familiar acquaintance with these squirrel s 

 has not enabled me to detect much in their habits 

 indicative of intelligence, and it is for this principally 

 that I look in studying animal life. I feel sorry to 

 have so poor an account to give of these beautiful 

 animals, but I am compelled to say it of them — they 

 are not "smart." Notwithstanding all their vivacity, 

 when in their native haunts, or in cages, they do 

 not exhibit by their movements, so far as I could 

 ever detect, any trace of sociality ; but each, on the 

 contrary, jumps, runs, flies, and spreads himself in 

 the air, holding to some small twig by his hind feet, 

 solely on his own account, quite irrespective of the 

 movements of his fellows, and apparently unconsciou s 

 of their proximity. Their utterances, too, are quite 

 as frequent when they are alone as when asso- 

 ciated with their own kind ; thus robbing these of 



