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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



I also found Glechoma hederacea with lilac variegated 

 flowers in 1869, and I once saw Call una vulgaris 

 white, and I think also Scabiosa succisa. In con- 

 clusion, it seems that blue and pink flowers are much 

 more liable to white varieties than red or yellow 

 species are. — //. IV. Kidd, 



Use of the Telescope. — In these days when 

 scientific trophies mostly consist in mummies and 

 dried bones, it is not a little refreshing to discover 

 that there remains for field purposes an instrument 

 whose qualities for research have been for the most 

 part overlooked. During these first {ew hours of real 

 spring, I have drawn infinite delight from lounging 

 on the grass, and watching the doings of my neigh- 

 bour's starlings through a telescope at a distance of 

 a thousand yards or so. The starling {Sturnus vul- 

 garis) has naturally great urbanity ; his whole time 

 at present being spent in whetting his beak and 

 pluming his glossy waistcoat. This delightful occu- 

 pation proceeds until sun-down, when there is a 

 reunion of starlings on the chimney-tops, and then 

 they go it with such a rattling, squeaking, and 

 whistling, as it were nigger minstrels or a party of 

 fiends. The old crow is not nearly so consummate 

 an actor ; and probably when tall trees come to be 

 cut down there will be an end of crows, rooks, and 

 ravens hereabouts, unless they resort like the jack- 

 daws to the church steeples. The starling contrari- 

 wise is emphatically a friend of man. — A. H., 

 Swinton. 



Drying Plants. — I collected some plants and 

 dried them as one would for a herbarium, last year. 

 Now the colour of the flowers of some has remained 

 — the buttercup, furze, saxifrage ; while ragged robin 

 has partially retained its colour, and restharrow and 

 lousewort have lost their colour. Could any one of 

 your readers tell me what method I should adopt so 

 that I could preserve the plants, the colour of the 

 flowers being retained ? — T. J. Wickcs. 



Linyphia MONTANA ? — In my remarks on Spiders 

 in the April issue of Science-Gossip, Linyphia 

 montana should read Linyphia, ? montana. I omit- 

 ted the note of interrogation. The notes were made 

 when I commenced collecting, and the accidental 

 destruction of the specimen and other causes prevent 

 my verifying memory, and I feel uncertain as to the 

 species. — J. E. A. 



Orchis mascula (p. 52). — Your correspondent 

 E. H. Scott cannot have read Mr. Malan's paper on 

 the common orchis, in which (I have just read it 

 again most carefully) there is no such statement as 

 " that the orchis bears no pollen." Mr. Malan has 

 twice mentioned orchis pollen on p. 57: first he 

 speaks of " the ripening of the pollen," and next of 

 dews that "would spoil the pollen." In Hooker's 

 " Student's Flora " will be found the following de- 

 scription of orchis pollen masses,' of which each inflo- 

 rescence produces but two only, " of many grains 

 united by an elastic web." — LP. W. Lett, M.A. 



Arrival of Swallows. — Dr. Abbott's interest- 

 ing inquiry about North American swallows induces 

 me to record my observation, that sand martins, 

 barn swallows, house martins, and swifts have 

 during the last eight years been observed in this 

 neighbourhood exactly on the day after that on 

 which, according to notices in the Field, each 

 appeared on the south coast of England three 

 hundred miles distant. Has any one else observed 

 the same? I live on the south shore of Lough 

 Neagh, where the Tipulre are in millions all spring 



and summer, about the trees that verge on the water. 

 I may just say that already the pioneers of 1SS3 are 

 with us ; several sand martins have been flitting 

 about since 31st of March. Is not this early? I 

 have not yet read of their first arrival this year in 

 England.— .#". W. Lett, M.A. 



Spontaneous Generation.— Should Mr. E. H. 

 Scott not yet have made the acquaintance of the 

 "Journal of the Postal Microscopical Society," I would 

 advise him to procure part 5, which was noticed 

 in Science-Gossip for last April, and to study 

 the article on The Conduct of Scientific Inquiry, by 

 E. J. E. Creese, F.R.M.S. In it he will find the 

 arguments for and against the idea of spontaneous 

 generation stated lucidly and forcibly. I have met 

 nothing that so well gives the whole question as 

 thorough a sifting as could be done in a short essay 

 as this clever and thoughtful paper. — //. IV. Lett, 

 M.A. 



Will some reader kindly refer me to any papers 

 on the botany of Snowdon and the Snovvdon district 

 that would be useful on the spot ? — J. B. 



The Pre-Cambrian Rocks of England. — On 

 reading the article on the Pre-Cambrian Rocks of 

 England and Wales by Mr. W. W. Watts, which 

 appears in the February number of Science-Gossip, 

 I was struck with the remarkable character of the 

 section shown in fig. 46. The angle (something like 

 130 degrees) through which the gneissose rocks (B) 

 must have passed before the deposition upon them of 

 the Holly-bush sandstone (A), is so great, that a 

 suspicion is raised that some error must have been 

 made, either in the representation of the section or 

 in the interpretation of it. If there be no error, then 

 the gneissose rocks must have been turned almost 

 completely upside down ; and although this is perhaps 

 not impossible, yet it would be a movement of such 

 magnitude that one may well pause and consider 

 before accepting it as proved. Perhaps Mr. Watts 

 may think it worth his while to refer to this matter, 

 and he may thereby remove a difficulty from the 

 minds of others besides myself. — Henry Fleck. 



" The Star of Bethlehem." — The American 

 papers are discussing the expected reappearance of 

 this star, which will be seen in the constellation 

 Cassiopeia about August 18S7. It is said to be the 

 same star that appeared at the birth of Christ, and 

 only appears once in 312 years ; the last occasion 

 being in the year 1572, when it was described by 

 Tycho Brahe. I am not aware that he described it 

 as having any connection with the one said to have 

 been seen at the birth of Christ, but merely as a new 

 star. On the night of the nth of November, 1572, his 

 attention was drawn to a brilliant and unknown star 

 in the constellation Cassiopeia, which filled him with 

 so much astonishment that he could scarcely believe 

 his own eyes. To convince himself there was no 

 illusion he put the question to other persons, if they 

 saw the star that had so sudden)* appeared. The 

 star received the name of the Pilgri . but it has also 

 been called the Star of Bethlehem is said to have 



outshone all the stars in the sky, including Jupiter, 

 which was then at its brightest, li iued to shine 



during the rest of the month with a ;tre so great as 

 to be visible to some persons in th me. It was 



at first of a bright white, afterwari Mish-yellow, 



and lastly of a leaden white like Its lustre 



began to diminish, and it grew fau . fainter until 



it became invisible in March 1574. s not to be 



supposed that the astrologers wo w so extra- 



ordinary a phenomenon to pass uni ; and there- 



