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HAEJDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



the water. The Portuguese give the manatee a name 

 signifying woman-fish, and the Dutch sailors call the 

 Dugong, Baardmannetje, or little bearded man. One 

 singular species belonging to this group, the rhytina, 

 is now extinct, having been hunted down within a 

 very recent period. It was first seen about 1750, in 

 Behring's Island, near the coast of Kamtchatka ; it 

 was here where Behring was wrecked, and he de- 

 scribed it as abounding with the rhytina. The last 

 was seen in 1768 ; it was estimated at twenty-five feet 

 in length, and twenty feet in its greatest circum- 

 ference. The skin was hairless, but very thick and 

 fibrous. Steller, who described the species, states 

 he was struck with the enormous size of the stomach, 

 being six feet in length, and five feet in breadth, 

 distended with masticated sea-weed. The sea-cow 

 has not far to remove in search of food, hence the 

 difference in specific gravity (betwixt this species 

 and the whales) in the bones. The latter pursue a 

 living prey, but it requires an effort on the part of 

 the dugong to reach the surface of the water. — 

 y. F. R. 



" The Weather of 1882." — Mr. Edward Manley, 

 F.M.S., honorary secretary of the National Rose 

 Society, has issued a valuable memoir on the above 

 subject, more particularly as observed in the neigh- 

 bourhood of London. The comparison of the 

 weather of that anomalous year is made in all 

 respects with that |of an average year. Much care 

 and pains have been taken in the matter, and there 

 can be no question the work will be a valuable 

 addition to meteorological literature. 



"The Butterflies of Europe," byH. C. Lang, 

 M.D., F.L.S. (London : Lovell Reeve and Co.). Part 

 xii. of this beautiful work is out, containing descriptive 

 and illustrative sketches of the various European 

 species of Argynnis and Melitsea. 



Hemel Hempstead Natural History Society. 

 — The annual report of this flourishing society for 

 the year 1882 has just appeared. It includes a total 

 of eighty-eight members, and is distinguished by the 

 number of field meetings held during the summer and 

 autumn. Public lectures were delivered during the 

 winter months by Dr. J. E. Taylor, the editor of 

 Science-Gossip, on "Volcanoes" and " Coal ;" by 

 J. Saunders, Esq., on "Flowers," and by J. Littleboy, 

 Esq., on " Migrations of Birds." These lectures are 

 thrown open to the public, and have been largely 

 attended. 



Frogs in Ireland. — The island of Rathlin, which 

 lies three miles off the north coast of to. Antrim, 

 was carefully explored last year by Mr. S. A. Stewart, 

 M.B.S.E., of Belfast, with a view to correcting the 

 lists of its fauna and flora. The examination made 

 was thorough, and resulted in eliciting the interesting 

 fact that the common frog is unknown in the island, 

 though abounding on the mainland. There are 



several small lakes and other spots in Rathlin suitable 

 for batrachian propagation, but for some reason Rana 

 temporaria has not yet emigrated. On referring to 

 Bell's "History of British Reptiles," p. 86, and "Edin- 

 burgh Philosophical Journal," vol. xviii. p. 372, it will 

 be found that frogs, though everywhere disseminated 

 through Ireland, were formerly unknown there, and 

 were introduced about two hundred years ago by a 

 Dr. Guithers, one of the Fellows of Trinity College, 

 Dublin, who is said to have procured frog's spawn 

 from England and placed it in a ditch in the 

 University Park, whence the species spread over the 

 entire country. Evidence exists of frogs having been 

 extremely rare, and of one being exhibited as a show 

 in the north of Ireland in the middle of the last 

 century.— .tf. IV. Lett, MA. 



Trout in New Zealand. — It may interest some 

 of your readers to hear that trout are multiplying 

 rapidly in our New Zealand rivers. A fine fish, 

 turning the scale at 10 lbs., was caught in a tributary 

 to the Wanganui river very recently. As it is not 

 more than seven years since ova were first deposited 

 in the river, it speaks well for the adaptability of our 

 streams for nurseries and breeding grounds of this 

 prince of freshwater fishes. Government very wisely 

 protects both trout and salmon by a licence. — Charles 

 Hardy, Wellington. 



" Another Book of Scraps relating to 

 Natural History." — By this title Mr. Charles 

 Murray Adamson has published a series of thirty-six 

 lithograph illustrations from pen and pencil sketches 

 of wild birds. They are exceedingly vigorous and 

 natural, although merely outline sketches, and pro- 

 claim the artist to be a true naturalist, possessed with 

 acute observing power. The sketches relate chiefly 

 to aquatic bird life. 



BOTANY. 



Podophyllum. — In re-arranging my collection of 

 vegetable dissections a few days ago, I observed that 

 Podophyllum Emodi is one seed leaved, and fearing 

 that somehow it might have got a wrong label, I had 

 a large root dug up. It was entirely underground, 

 but the flower stalks were formed, about two inches 

 in length, and just peeping into the light. On 

 dissection, the stalks, rhizomes and roots everywhere 

 are seen to indicate one seed leaf. Throughout them 

 are abundance of starch, and signs of the presence of a 

 resin or gum-resin. Podophyllum at present is con- 

 sidered to be two seed leaved, and is placed about 

 the beginning of the natural arrangement, but there 

 has been great uncertainty as to a reasonable position 

 for it. Some botanists, as Lindley and Balfour, place 

 it among the Ranunculaceae ; some, as Asa Gray, 

 among the Berberidese ; and others, as Loudon, in 



