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HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P. 



a female, were found dead under a leaf of rhubarb in 

 the same spot from which the female bird used to 

 flutter. The male bird had been dead for some time, 

 the female bird had evidently died quite recently. I 

 could not doubt that it was the same bird that used 

 to flutter from under the rhubarb, as no female bird 

 was seen in that corner of the garden afterwards. I 

 imagine the male bird was ailing or dead under the 

 rhubarb leaves, and the female would not leave him. 

 But what was the cause of her death ? Was it grief, 

 or starvation, or both ? Or may one bird catch 

 disease from another ? Some of your readers, better 

 acquainted with the habits of the blackbird than I, 

 maybe able to cast some light on this subject. — James 

 Fordyee, Bishop Brigge, by Glasgow. 



BOTANY. 



Cephalanthera ensifolia. — With respect to 

 the remarks of R. W. P., St. Leonards-on-Sea, on 

 this plant, I beg to observe that my experience of it 

 as growing in England entirely agrees with Bentham's 

 description. I have examples now before me, gathered 

 in West Sussex, with only five flowers on each speci- 

 men. Those on C. grandiflora have usually seven or 

 eight. I have found the two plants growing at no 

 great distance from each other. While C. etisifolia is 

 very rare in Sussex, C. grandiflora is by no means 

 uncommon. — F. H. Arnold, Hermitage, Emsworth. 



The Irregular Appearance of the Bee 

 Orchis. — In Science-Gossip for January, Mr. John 

 Taylor has reverted to the notes on this subject which 

 appeared in the same in 1S81, and justly remarks that 

 no "very lucid explanation" was arrived at. As 

 bearing upon this matter, I will relate a fact that 

 came under my notice just two years ago. In the 

 spring of 1885, before my lawn had been touched by 

 scythe or machines I found a plant of this species 

 growing amongst the grass, and removed it with a 

 ball of earth to another part of the garden where it 

 subsequently flowered. Now the turf from which 

 this plant was taken had been kept closely cut with 

 a machine throughout the previous summer and 

 autumn, as in other years, so that the tubers must 

 have existed without leaves during this period, and 

 yet it flowered the following summer. A few days 

 after transplanting this bee orchis, I detected a 

 second near the same place and purposed trans- 

 planting it also, but it escaped my memory until too 

 late — the lawn was mown and no more seen of the 

 second plant. I looked for it last spring and also 

 this, but no trace of it. It seems scarcely possible 

 that the seed dropped one summer should produce a 

 flowering plant the next ; yet how otherwise can this 

 have been, with a closely shaven lawn for seven or 

 eight months of the year, unless the tubers can live 



and grow without foliage ? I cultivate in my garden 

 all the British species of Orchis that I am able to 

 obtain, so that the seed may have been carried to the 

 turf by the wind. The man orchis from the Surrey 

 downs luxuriates with me. — William Jeffery. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



American Jurassic Mammals. — Professor O. C. 

 Marsh has recently published a paper in which are 

 described the remains of several hundred individuals 

 that have recently come to light. Although frag- 

 mentary, the remains are usually well-preserved, 

 comprising the lower jaws, teeth in situ, various 

 portions of the skull, vertebras, and other parts of 

 the skeleton. Placental as well as marsupial- 

 mammals occur in the oldest formations, whence the 

 inference that the former are not derived from the 

 latter evolutionally, as is supposed, but that both of 

 these orders descend in independent lines from a 

 common ancestor. 



Boulders in Coal. — At the April meeting of 

 the Leeds Geological Association, Mr. C. Brown- 

 ridge, F.G.S., read a short paper, entitled "Notes 

 on Four Boulders found in the Black Bed Coal 

 and overlying shales and ironstone at Wortley." 

 Mr. Brownridge, after alluding to the fact that the 

 presence of boulders in the coal measures is becoming 

 an important question, said that these interesting 

 discoveries occur from time to time, some having 

 been found in the coalfields of Leicestershire, 

 Lancashire, and the Forest of Dean ; but none 

 hitherto appear to have been recorded from that 

 immediate district. The position where these 

 boulders were found is situate in " No. 1 Black Bed 

 Pit." The whole of this neighbourhood is worked 

 for the Wortley fire-clay. Along with the fire-clay 

 he better bed-coal above is got, and at a still higher 

 level the black bed coal and the overlying ironstone 

 are worked. It was in the last-named beds that the 

 specimens were found. The depth of the black bed 

 coal from the surface is here 30ft. The largest of 

 the boulders is a coarse gritstone, and nearly 

 spherical in shape. Its dimensions are 2ft. 6in. by 

 2ft., and it has a fairly smooth, polished face, with 

 slight striae. This example was found embedded in 

 the " bind," or clayey shales, just overlying the coal. 

 The other three boulders (or pebbles) are much 

 smaller in size, varying from 1 1 in. by 9m. to 3?in. 

 by 2^in., and were all found embedded in the black 

 bed coal itself. One of the specimens is a fine- 

 grained grit, the other two being quartzites. The 

 two latter are rather more angular in general shape 

 than the grit specimens, but in all of them the angles 

 are well rounded off and the faces polished. The 

 reason why these stones are thus found located in 



