234 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Myxomycetes," by \V. B. Grove, B.A. (with a list 

 of those found in the neighbourhood of Birmingham); 

 " Notes on Beavers, and the Bute Beavery," by 

 Egbert de Hamel ; " Nomad Fungi, The Reclassifi- 

 cation of the Uredinese ;" also by W. B. Grove, B.A. 

 (illustrated) ; " On a Dragon Fly," by Sylvanus 

 Wilkins ; and a " Visit to Glen Clova and Callater," 

 by G. C. Druce, F.L.S. 



Good News for Ostriculturists. — Mr. J. A. 

 Ryder, who has been doing excellent work for some 

 time past, in connection with embryology, has at 

 length effected a most important and practical dis- 

 covery. It has been announced, first, in the form of a 

 telegram to Professor B. Goode, the United States 

 Commissioner to the International Fisheries Exhibi- 

 tion, which states that Mr. Ryder has finally solved the 

 problem of the culture of oysters from artificially 

 impregnated eggs, and that on the 4th of September, 

 at the Government station, Hockton, Maryland, 

 there were many millions of young oysters, three- 

 quarters of an inch diameter, which had been hatched 

 from eggs artificially impregnated forty-six days 

 before. As many of our readers are aware, a single 

 oyster will yield some millions of eggs, and if Mr. 

 Ryder's method of artificially impregnating them can 

 be carried out in British as well as American waters, 

 we have no hesitation in saying this will prove one 

 of the most important and triumphant results of 

 modern zoological research. 



BOTANY. 



The Fertilisation of Willows. — I can endorse 

 what Mr. Hamson says with regard to the infrequency 

 of bees passing over from the male to the female 

 willows, still they do pass over to them, as I have 

 often noticed ; but the question does not end here. 

 Next spring let Mr. Hamson, or any one, when the 

 catkins are just maturing, take a bull's-eye lantern, 

 in the evening, and throw its beams on the first 

 sallow he may find, and, if the evening is warm and 

 moist, he will see various Lepidoptera, Geometers, 

 and Noctuas, according to the locality, standing over 

 the catkins, or clinging to them, sipping the nectar 

 from either male or female plant. Further, get an um- 

 brella, invert it beneath the boughs of the willows, while 

 gently beating them with a walking-stick, and there 

 is no doubt the whole insecta will be represented 

 amongst the proceeds. At least the Diptera, Cole- 

 optera, Hymenoptera, and Hemiptera will be found. 

 On a warm sunny day may be noticed also common 

 flies alighting on the female catkins of the willow, 

 and if they are watched it will be noticed that they 

 carefully mop all round the carpels, as carefully as a 

 housewife would the drawing-room floor. In the 

 evening, when the sun is fast gliding down the west, 



noislessly watch, from bush to bush, and from flower 

 to flower, and the reward will be the pleasure of 

 noticing various small cylindrical red and brassy 

 coloured beetles on the catkins. These beetles will 

 belong to the genera Meligethes and Epura. They 

 will climb up one carpel on one side, over the stigma, 

 and down the other side ; this process may be repeated 

 the whole length of the catkin. Touch the bough 

 and they are off, perhaps to visit the next willow, 

 which may be a male. Any one who has noticed 

 this, will come to the same conclusion as I have 

 done, that willows are not fertilised by bees alone, 

 but by plant-loving insects in general, and that it is 

 not necessary to bring the winds into the question at 

 all in this case. Indeed 6". triandra seems most 

 unlikely to be wind fertilised, as the leaves appear 

 with the flowers. — G. Robson. 



The Cause of Double Flowers. — This subject 

 has exercised the minds of many persons who have 

 admired them, and sundry whimsical things have been 

 written on the subject. Ten years ago some Sweet 

 William seed was given to me, from which I had 

 many plants with beautiful flowers in a variety of 

 colours, but none double till this year, when I have 

 had one quite double among the plants grown from 

 the first ripe seed of a single plant gathered and 

 saved in the summer of 1881. Now, if I may 

 venture an hypothesis, I would say that the first 

 flower opening on a plant is rather more likely to be 

 self-fertilised than those which come after, on account 

 of there not being then many flowers of the species 

 in bloom. The seed from such a flower would be 

 likely Jo produce a plant with quite as much vigour 

 of vegetative growth as any other, but with less 

 reproductive energy. A plant with such a constitu- 

 tion would be likely to grow vigorously and to evade, 

 if possible, the duty of producing seed by assuming 

 a petaloid character in those organs which should 

 properly have been stamens. I rather think that 

 some of Dr. Darwin's experiments with Ipomoea 

 favour this hypothesis. — "John Gibbs. 



CEcidium Urtic^e. — Mr. Williams expresses sur- 

 prise at his inability to find this fungus in his ex- 

 cursions around Bath. But in the list he gives of 

 the uredines he has found there, no mention is made 

 of Puccinia caricis. If P. caricis does not occur near 

 Bath he cannot expect to find the cecidium on nettle, 

 for they are both states of the same fungus. P. 

 caricis is a widely distributed species, and it is very 

 unlikely that it does not occur in the district. If 

 during the present autumn Mr. Williams searches 

 for the puccinia on Carex kirta, for instance, he will 

 most likely succeed in finding it. If he does so, he 

 will have a clue as to the whereabouts of the cecidium 

 next spring. It must be remembered that the 

 cecidiospores are far less abundant than the uredo- 

 spores and teleutospores of hetercecismal uredines. 

 Witness the prevalence of Puccinia graminis and the 



