HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



by Evans D. Jones ; "On the Geographical Distri- 

 bution of Corals," by Stuart O. Ridley, F.L.S. ; 

 together with interesting accounts of various geo- 

 logical Excursions. 



Fossn. Worms. — Dr. G. J. Hinde has kindly 

 forwarded us his paper (communicated to the Royal 

 Swedish Academy of Sciences) "On Annelid 

 Remains from the Silurian Strata of the Isle of 

 Gotland." The descriptions are based chiefly on the 

 jaws of errant worms found in the soft shales of 

 Frojel and Wisby. Most of them belonged to worms 

 nearly related to the existing Eunicea, nine species of 

 which are here described under the generic name of 

 Eunicites. Another genus, called Ononites, includes 

 eight species ; the genus Arabellites has ten species, 

 and Lumbriconereites four species. The jaws of all 

 these species are beautifully figured. We have a 

 great deal of real solid palseontological work here 

 packed away in a very small space. This paper 

 cannot fail to enhance Dr. Hinde's growing reputa- 

 tion. 



Fossil "Walking-Stick" Insects. — Until the 

 present only no species of insects were known from 

 the Carboniferous rocks of the whole world. In 

 France none were known until 1877, when M. 

 Brongniart received some wings of Blattida? from St. 

 Etienne ; and in the same year was sent him from 

 Commentry a Phasmian, described under the name 

 of Protophasma Dumasii. Since that date, at least 

 430 impressions have been obtained from the coal- 

 measures of Commentry ; these include 300 Blattidse 

 and 130 insects of various orders. From M. Fayol M. 

 Brongniart has just received a remarkable Orthopteron 

 of gigantic size, found in fine blackish shales at Com- 

 mentry. All parts of the body, except the upper part of 

 the thorax and abdonien, are preserved. It approaches 

 the Phasmid?e or "walking-stick" insects most 

 closely ; and to that group M. Brongniart refers it 

 as forming a new genus, under the name of Titano- 

 phasma Fayoli. ■ The genus Titanophasma comes 

 nearest to" Protophasma among fossil forms ; among 

 recent types it resembles Phibalosoma in size and the 

 general form of the j body, and in the presence of 

 numerous spines and . warts upon its legs. The 

 occurrence of insects in which mimicry is so highly 

 developed as in this group, so far back as the 

 Carboniferous period, suggests that they must have 

 had enemies, at present unknown to us, against which 

 they were protected by their resemblance to inanimate 

 objects. 



"The Missing' Link."— Whether this remark- 

 able specimen of humanity now exhibited at the 

 Westminster Aquarium is a " missing link " or not, 

 nobody will deny it is of the greatest interest. It is 

 a child seven years of age, capable 'of speech, whose 

 body is covered with short, dense, soft hair ; with 

 feet prehensile, hands capable of being bent quite 



back on the wrist, pouched cheeks, used to store food 

 as in the monkeys, jaws slightly prognathic. It will 

 not do nowadays to settle such an anomaly by calling 

 it a lusus natures, for most naturalists are agreed that 

 "sports" and "monstrosities" are often only "re- 

 versions to ancestral conditions." The father of the 

 child was covered with hair in a similar manner. The 

 family was discovered in the Lao country, by Mr. 

 Carl Bock, the well-known traveller and anthropo- 

 logist. Miss Bird, in her charming book on Japan, 

 describes the short, hairy aboriginal race of that 

 country, known as Ainos ; and more recently Mr. 

 A. H. Keene has described the Aino ethnology more 

 fully and scientifically. In the extreme east of Asia 

 we have these dwarf hairy Ainos fast becoming 

 extinct ; and now a Siamese hairy family turns up 

 with decidedly simian characteristics. In Burmah 

 hairy people have been occasionally known. It will 

 be remembered that, many years ago, Mr. Everett 

 was sent to Borneo to explore the caves for possible 

 early remains of man, as it has always been imagined 

 that it is to the tropical and subtropical parts of the 

 extreme East we should look for "missing links" 

 between humanity and the lower animals. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



A poisonous Lizard, and new Snakes. — 

 Perhaps those of your correspondents who do not 

 already know about it, would like to hear that a new 

 and poisonous lizard has been discovered in America, 

 named the Heloderm. It can kill a guinea pig in 

 three minutes ; its food at the Zoological Gardens 

 consists of eggs and mice ; it is thought that its 

 natural food is reptiles ; it has therefore been offered 

 a grass-snake and a slowworm ; but it has taken no 

 notice of them. It is a short thick-set, dull-looking 

 creature ; its colour is dull yellow with dark 'mottlings ; 

 its length I omitted to ascertain. - Some new snakes 

 have been discovered about Jeddah ; there are several 

 at the Zoological Gardens. Noting from one now 

 before me, its description is as follows. Its length is 

 about 5 feet ; it is very slender, and has an extremely 

 thin and tapering tail. Its ground colour is a pinkish 

 brown, the former hue predominating ; the fore part 

 of its body is darker than the latter, and indistinctly 

 spotted, while the tail end is clear and light, thus 

 giving the creature a very strange appearance. Its 

 head is noticeable, the eyes seeming to project above 

 the top of the head, frog fashion. It feeds on frogs 

 and mice, the latter for preference, and likes to lie in 

 water. I shall be happy to send portions of the cast 

 skin to a few microscopists, if they desire it. Can any 

 correspondent tell me anything of the food or habits 

 of the bombadier or fire-bellied toad [Bonibihdibr 

 igneus) of which I have lately caught a specimen in 

 Belgium ? — H. C. Brooke. 



White Flowered Plants. — I have the following 

 plants with white flowers -.—Ajuga reptans (buglef, 

 York. Lychnis Flos-cuculi (ragged robin), Pen 

 Maen Mawr, North Wales. Polygonum hydropiper , 

 (water pepper), York. Prunella vulgaris (self- • 

 heal), Pen Maen Mawr, North Wales. Centaurea 

 Scabiosa (great knapweed), Seaton. — Alfred Mailer, 1 

 York. 



