IIARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



165 



so for the last few years, and, though I have watched 

 closely, I have never seen any bird, touch one. The 

 poisonous properties of this attractive fruit are too 

 well known from their effects on children who have 

 unwittingly partaken of them ; but is there any other 

 animal besides the mouse which can eat them with 

 impunity ?— H. W. Lett, M.A. 



The Development of the Tadpole.— Miss 

 Kingsford, in her article "On the Development of the 

 Tadpoles of the Common Frog," has left out what I 

 consider to be the most interesting feature in tadpole 

 life, viz. the manner in which the tail is absorbed. 

 Metskinkoff, by a microscopic examination of some 

 teased portions of a tadpole's tail, has shown that the 

 absorption is due to the activity of leucocytes, or 

 white blood corpuscles— those amceboid scavengers 

 of the blood — and that they are seen hurrying away 

 with part and parcel of the muscular tissue of the 

 tail in their sarcodous substance, most probably to 

 help to build up the limbs. It is then really a 

 normal pathological process, a process of inflammation 

 — a determination of leucocytes to a point. I may 

 also add that Mr. J. Bland Sutton has confirmed 

 Metskinkoff s view, and this not only in the tadpole 

 but also in the larval ascidian. — J. W. Williams. 



"The Rotifers, or Wheel Animalcules," 

 by Dr. C. T. Hudson and P. H. Gosse, F.R.S. 

 (London : Longmans). Part 4 of this important 

 monograph has just appeared. It is devoted 

 to the families Triarthradae, Hydatinidse, and No- 

 tommatadse (the latter a very large and elastic group). 

 The coloured plates give upwards of a hundred figures 

 and details of all the leading kinds of rotifers. Only 

 two more parts are necessary to complete this 

 beautiful and much-required work. 



BOTANY. 



Potentilla tridentata. — Could any of the 

 readers of Science-Gossip inform me if they have 

 ever seen or heard of Potentilla tridentata under 

 cultivation ? — Thomas Fisher. 



Notes on Cardamink pratensis.— Since asking 

 the question as to the viviparous character of Car- 

 datnine pratensis, I have carefully made the following 

 observations of plants taken indiscriminately from 

 different positions with different degrees of mois- 

 ture : April 27th, 3 plants in damp ditch, 2 vivi- 

 parous. March 30th, 14 plants in rather moist field, 

 3 viviparous. March 30th, 12 plants in very moist 

 field, all viviparous. March 30th, 5 plants in rather 

 dry situation, 2 viviparous. March 30th, 2 plants in 

 rather dry situation, none viviparous. April 1st, 1 

 plant in moist ditch, viviparous. April 1st, 13 plants 

 in boggy field, 12 viviparous. April 1st, 6 plants in 

 boggy field, 5 viviparous. April 1st, 8 plants in 



another part of the same field, 8 viviparous. Accord- 

 ing to this, I find that 70*3 per cent, of the carda- 

 mines have proliferous leaves. I found all plants in 

 very damp places invariably with plant-bearing 

 leaves, and had small plants in different stages of 

 growth close to them. As Mr. Burder remarks in 

 your last issue, I found the end lobe of the leaf to be 

 more fertile than other parts. — B. Taylor. 



Hesperis matronalis. — I have found this plant 

 growing freely and vigorously, in a copse separated 

 from the high road by a low wall, between Rotherham 

 and Wickensley, Yorkshire. Hooker regards it as 

 "not even naturalised," but its strong habit and 

 profusion in this particular spot would certainly lead 

 one to doubt the statement. — Geo. Arthur Grierson. 



GEOLOGY, &C. 



The Albatross a Northern Bird. — Mr. R. 

 Lydekker recently described before the Geological 

 Society two bones of a bird in the Ipswich Museum 

 collection, which had been found in the Crag beds. 

 He showed that these bones were those of the 

 albatross. At present the albatross is confined to 

 the seas of the southern hemisphere, but in the 

 Pliocene period these fossils demonstrate that it 

 existed in the northern. 



The United States Geological Survey. — 

 From the Government of the United States we have 

 received Bulletins 15-23 of the Geological Survey 

 of that country. European geologists are always 

 glad to get the reports of the American geologists, 

 and the American Government sends them out with 

 a generosity which makes us ashamed of the mean 

 and shabby parsimony of our English Stationery 

 Office. The following are among the chief memoirs 

 contained in the Bulletins: "The Mesozoic and 

 Cenozoic Palaeontology of California," by Dr. C. A. 

 White ; "The Development of Crystallisation in the 

 Igneous Rocks of Washoe, etc.," by Messrs. A. Hague 

 and J. P. Iddings ; " The Higher Devonian Faunas 

 of Ontario County," by J. M. Clarke ; " The Strati- 

 graphy of California," by G. F. Becker; "The 

 Mineralogy of the Rocky Mountains," by Whitman 

 Cross and W. F. Hillebrand ; "The Lignites of 

 the great Sioux Reservation," by Bailey Willis ; 

 " New Cretaceous Fossils from California," by Dr. 

 C. A. White ; " Marine.Eocene, Freshwater Miocene, 

 and other Fossil Mollusca of Western North America," 

 by Dr. C. A. White, etc. 



" British Petrography." — The fifth part of 

 this useful and splendidly got-up work has appeared, 

 devoted chiefly to the Leucitic group. The coloured 

 plates illustrate sections of Olivine-Dolerite, or 

 " Greenstone," as it used to be called. 



