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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



especially the bushes where bramble and roses were 

 common : in such swarms were they that it was quite 

 impossible to walk in some places without getting 

 these insects either in one's mouth, or ears, or nose, 

 or eyes. During the eight years that I have been in 

 Eastbourne (although I have not observed this sort 

 of things except during the last four or five) I have 

 never seen such large numbers of gnats (or whatever 

 they were, for I do not think that they were the 

 common gnats) either so early in the year or at a 

 later period. I thought that perhaps this note might 

 be interesting. The proper thing would have been 

 to have boxed a few for examination, but I did not 

 think of it. I should also like to notice that the ash 

 (Fraxiiuts excelsior) is now out in many parts of Sus- 

 sex in bud or leaf, and has been in bloom for nearly 

 a month ; the oak is only just beginning to bud, and 

 is still quite brown. Surely this is unusual, or else 

 how can we justify Tennyson, who says, " as lingereth 

 the tender ash to clothe herself when all the woods 

 are green" ? — T. A. Dymcs, Eastbourne. 



" The Star of Bethlehem."— Mr. Dipton Burn, 

 under the heading "The Star of Bethlehem," in 

 your last number, refers to a conjecture, recently 

 brought forward again, that the star seen by the 

 Magi at our Lord's nativity was identical with a 

 new star observed by Tycho Brahe in 1572, that it 

 appears regularly in periods somewhat exceeding 

 three hundred years, and that it will be seen once 

 more in two or three years from the present time. 

 I have shown in "The Observatory," a scientific 

 journal which circulates amongst astronomers, that 

 there is no real ground for supposing that Tycho 

 Brahe's star of 1572 has any such period. It^has 

 indeed been stated that new stars were seen in a.d. 

 945 and 1264 ; but Tycho himself has shown, in his 

 elaborate work on the star of 1572, that there is no 

 sufficient evidence of these supposed earlier appear- 

 ances, and that the allusions were in all probability to 

 comets which were observed in those years. (The 

 splendid comet of 1264, the year of the battle of 

 Lewes in England, is mentioned by all the historians 

 of that period.) And with regard to the star of the 

 Nativity, nothing can be more evident, as was pointed 

 out by St. Chrysostom, than that it was a miraculous 

 appearance in the form of a star (perhaps visible, as 

 many divines think, to the Magi only), sent expressly 

 to indicate the Saviour's birth. Let me quote part of 

 a sentence from the learned Tycho : — "Stella ilia, qua? 

 in OrienteMagis apparuit, . . . ilia, inquam, stella non 

 erat de ccelestium astrorum genere." And these are 

 wise words, as all the circumstances of that appear- 

 ance, recorded in the sacred narrative, show. — W. 

 T. Lyjin, B.A., F.B.A.S., Blackhcaih. 



Natural History of North Wales.— Do any 

 of your readers know of any books treating on the 

 natural history of North Wales? If so, will they 

 kindly answer through your correspondence column ? 

 — W. 7- B. 



Vinula.— As regards the disease Mr. Finch no- 

 tices in his larva? of Vinula, I think it must be 

 attributed to giving them damp food. This should 

 never be done with these larvae. I always dry the 

 food well ; and if Mr. Finch will do the same, I hope 

 his larva? will be free from this disease. I have 

 reared many of these insects from the egg, and when 

 I first began I found the same thing happen, but 

 since I have given them well-dried food I have never 

 had any die in this way. Of course this rule is not 

 universal, as Potatoria and Caja, if kept without any 

 moisture, will dry up. About the excrement of 



Vinula, of which I wrote in April, perhaps I should 

 have called the colour pink instead of red. The last 

 pellet very often gets spun into the cocoon, and this 

 is perhaps the reason for Mr. Finch not noticing this 

 very obvious fact. — T. A. Dy tries, Eastbourne. 



Ovid's Hyacinth. — The flower fabled to have 

 sprung first from the blood of Hyacinthus, then from 

 that of Ajax, is described by Ovid, a correct 

 observer of nature, somewhat fully (Met. x. 210-216, 

 and xiii. 394-398), yet the modern synonym of the 

 flower is still an open question. According to his 

 descriptions the plant must be (1) of the liliaceous 

 type ; (2) the blossom purple, reddish, violet or 

 brownish (the word purpureus as used by Latin 

 poets may be translated by any of the above*) ; (3) 

 the perianth segments must be marked with the 

 letters A I. It may be added that Dioscorides 

 describes the hyacinth as a bulbous plant, with long 

 narrow leaves. Other characteristics of the plant 

 may be inferred from the facts of the story. Thus, it 

 must be a native of Greece and Italy ; must blossom 

 in the early part of the year : for in Southern Europe 

 grass is parched early in the summer, while Hyacinth 

 is said to have sprung from the green turf; besides, 

 Hyacinthus was killed by Phcebus and Boreas, an 

 apt description of the precarious life of an early 

 spring flower, liable on the one hand to be withered 

 by scorching sun, and on the other nipped by 

 blasting winds. Finally, the plant must have an 

 appearance suggestive of sorrow (it was an emblem 

 of death among the Greeks). The species of the 

 genus Fritillaria growing in Greece and Southern 

 Italy — viz. F. Messanensis, Pontica, Grceca, conica, 

 and tristis — fulfil in a remarkable degree these 

 requirements, especially the last two. It must be 

 noted that they form so natural a group, in other 

 words are both so variable and nearly allied, that 

 Floras differ in the naming of them. Loudon selects 

 the character of chequered flowers as a distinctive 

 mark of Fritillarias among European Liliaceas. 

 They have a peculiar tesselation which readily lends 

 itself to the forming of letters in several of the 

 species. In F. Meleagris small square letters can be 

 easily traced, while in Sib thorp's "Flora Grseca" 

 there is another species figured, in which the purple 

 veins of the flower look like cursive characters, among 

 which the combination A I more than once occurs. 

 The drawing is not likely to be exaggerated in this 

 direction, for Sibthorp looked upon Gladiolus By- 

 zantinus as the Greek hyacinth ; moreover, Bauer, 

 who drew the figures, is remarkable for the accuracy 

 of his botanical drawings. The general appearance 

 of Fritillarias is strongly in their favour, being plants 

 of a forlorn and gloomy appearance. The species 

 above named may be thus roughly described : — The 

 stem is unbranched, bulbous below, bearing narrow 

 leaves, and a solitary, drooping flower ; the flower 

 is an inch or more long, tulip-shaped ; in systematic 

 descriptions the colours are given as wine-purple or 

 livid ; the chequering is darker than the ground 

 colour ; finally, it is an early flowering genus, 

 some species beginning to blossom in March, none 

 later than June. Ovid's commentators are una- 

 nimous in rejecting the claim of the modern 

 hyacinth, //. orieutalis, to a heritage of tradition ; 

 but give their allegiance to one or other of the 

 following plants : Gladiolus Byzantinus, Lilium 

 Martagon, Iris Germanica, and Delphinium Ajacis. 

 These all fail in three of the qualifications named 

 above : they flower in summer and autumn, the colours 

 of the flowers are bright, and the plants of robust 



* Lewis and Short's Latin Dictionary. 



