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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



to its rarity I have witnessed the same many times 

 both on Cyclops and water-snails, from my own 

 aquarium, on various parts of their bodies. In the 

 latter, when the mollusk retracts itself within the 

 shell, the vorticella is drawn in with it. This small 

 vorticella seems much to enjoy a ride on its host, 

 after the fashion of the Anemone and Hermit Crab ; 

 if fixed on any immovable object, the shortness of 

 its pedicle would greatly limit its range in search of 

 food. In Vorticella microstoma, which is fixed, 

 the length of pedicle compensates for the want of 

 unlimited range. I consider the pedicle of Epistylis 

 contractile, as the animal appears and disappears by 

 jerks, but not spirally so, neither does it contract 

 or expand one-fiftieth part so much as the common 

 vorticella. For more information, let me refer 

 "H. E. P." to the " Micrographic Dictionary," 1375, 

 page 214, art. " Cyclops," last two lines ; also art. 

 " Epistylis," page 286. I enclose engraving from 

 Hall's Encyclopsedia, figure 16, and letter-press 

 eighty-eight years ago, which is a representation' of 

 the same infusoria, there named Vorticella digi- 

 talis; lastly, to Cooke's "1,000 Objects for the 

 Microscope," page 100, No. 790, named by him, 

 Foxglove epistylis. — J. S. Johnson. 



The Swallow-tailed Butterfly.— Can any of 

 your readers inform me of a place in Kent where 

 this insect is to be found ? — Henry Lamb, Maidstone. 



Flume. — In the April number, p. 209, the word 

 "flume" is queried. It is quite a common Western 

 word, meaning a water-channel, and usually would 

 be written " flumen." See photos of Pacific Railway 

 and Californian scenery, such as sluicing and gold- 

 washing by powerful jets by flumens. — P. France. 



Popular Notions on Irish Natural His- 

 tory. — " P. M.," writing on Mistletoe and Holly 

 in the April number, says, "it is said never 

 to grow in Ireland" ; and coupling this remark with 

 the statement respecting Devonshire, I infer it 

 is meant that mistletoe will not grow in Ireland. 

 As far as I know, it is not indigenous here, but 

 it will grow if the berry is put on the trees ; this 

 1 have proved in my own garden, where I have 

 it growing very luxuriantly on apple-trees, pro- 

 ducing flowers and berries in abundance. I also have 

 it in a young state on thorns, laburnum, and beech : 

 1 am trying it on others. There are many places in 

 the North of Ireland where it grows, having been 

 introduced. Some years ago there was a very fine 

 plant on an apple-tree in the Botanic Gardens, 

 Belfast. There does not seem anything unfavour- 

 able to its growth in Ireland. My observations 

 being made on plants artificially propagated, I 

 should be glad if "R. M." could give another 

 paper on the mode by which the berries are carried 

 from one tree to another; if they pass through the 

 intestines of birds in an undigested state, and are 

 capable of growing when dropped on the brunches. 

 Also the agency at work to carry the pollen from 

 the staminiferous to the pistiliferous flowers, these 

 being on different plants sometimes a long way 

 apart, and the pistil not being prominent, as in 

 flowers fertilized by action of the wind. I have not 

 observed bees or other insects frequenting the 

 plants. Another popular error is, that toads will 

 not live in Ireland. 1 can refute this, as I have had 

 them in my fernery for years, and had them 

 breed, and go through all their transformations. If 

 any naturalists in England would send me toad 

 spawn, I should be much obliged, and could experi- 



ment more fully than I have done, and would put 

 them where enemies would be few. — W.H. Phillips, 

 Holywood, County Down, Ireland . 



A Curious Coincidence.— Sir John Lubbock, 

 in his work on " Pre-historic Times," and other 

 writers, have lately shown us how well the habits 

 of primeval man may be illustrated by the manners 

 and customs of modern savages, and I have met 

 with an interesting fact of a similar nature. In 

 chapter viii., p. 279, of "Pre-historic Times,", there 

 is an interesting quotation from a paper in the 

 Transactions of the Academv of Science of St. 

 Louis (Ohio), 1857, p. .61, by a Dr. A. C. Koch, 

 who describes the remains of a mastodon fouud in 

 Gasconade county, which bad apparently been 

 stoned to death by the Indians, and then partially 

 consumed by fire. The fire, he says, was evidently 

 "not an accidental one; but, on the contrary, it 

 had been kindled by human agency, and, according to 

 all appearance, with the design of killing the huge 

 creature which had been found mired in the mud in 

 an entirely helpless condition." The bones were 

 found standing up in the clay, and only those above 

 the surface were charred. There were also broken 

 pieces of rock, from the river near, and pebbles, 

 none of which were in situ in the clay, but appa- 

 rently fetched from the river-banks, where there was 

 a layer of them. Mingled with the ashts, bones, and 

 rocks, were arrow-heads, stone spear-heads and 

 axes ; and a stone arrow-head was found under the 

 thigh-bone of the skeleton, actually in contact with 

 it. Curiously enough, in G. W. Earl's work on 

 "The Papuans" (Balliere, London), p. 151, we 

 read the following, respecting the Lemangs, a 

 degraded Negritto race, supposed to be the abori- 

 gines of the Malayan peninsula, extracted from the 

 fourth volume of the " Journal of the Indian 

 Archipelago." "The rhinoceros they obtain with 

 even less difficulty. This animal which, is of solitary 

 habits, is found frequently in marshy places, with 

 its whole body immersed in the mud, and part of the 

 head only visible. The Malays call the animal 

 'Badak Tapa,' or the recluse rhinoceros. Towards 

 the close of the rainy season, they are said to bury 

 themselves in this manner in different places ; and 

 upon the dry weather setting in, and from the 

 powerful effects of a vertical suu, the mud becomes 

 hard and crusted, and the rhinoceros cannot effect 

 its escape without considerable difficulty and 

 exertion. The Lemangs prepare themselves with 

 large quantifies of combustible materials, with 

 which the quietly approach the animal, who is 

 aroused ft >m his reverie by an immense fire over 

 him, which being kept well supplied by the Lemangs 

 with fresh fuel, soon completes his destruction and 

 renders him in a fit, state to make a meal of." It is 

 curious to find that a method employed by existing 

 savage tribes, to master the rhinoceros, should have 

 been applied in prehistoric times to the vast 

 Mastodon.— F. A. A. 



Geese and Herds.— At page US, I observe you 

 ask this question : — Has any one ever seen geese 

 eating the Galium aparine? I have not, but 

 there is a grass (Bromus mollis), which in this neigh- 

 bourhood is called goo?e-grass, which I bave seen 

 them devour rather greedily. It is an early grass, 

 with a large woolly stem and head, but, not of much 

 value to the agriculturist. I have never seen 

 geese eat the Potentilla anserina, but in places 

 where geese are kept I have seen them eating the 

 short grass, Bromus mollis being one, between the 



