HA RD WICKE ' S SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



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Two of the remaining stems have grown to five and 

 a-half inches, and are giving some indication of future 

 flowering, while the third has shot up to eight inches, 

 and exhibits four flower-buds, developing very slowly 

 — the proper course, according to that lovely work on 

 British Wild Flowers by Sowerby and Johnson (Van 

 Voorst), whose dictum respecting it is: "flowers in 

 racemes, August." But what then of the early single 

 flowers ? Turning to Withering, I find as follows : 

 ' ' Fruit-stalks supporting from one to three flowers ; 

 time of flowering, July to September, also early in 

 spring." This meets the case exactly, with the ex- 

 ception of limiting the flowers to three, whereas the 

 aforesaid wilful stem evidently intends to exhibit 

 four.— y. Wallis, Deal. 



The Grey Hair-grass {Corynephorus canescens). 

 — On the 19th of last month, at Homersfield, which 

 is twenty miles from the sea on the Suffolk side of 

 the Waveney, I found several tufts of the grey hair- 

 grass {Corynephorus canescens) growing in a gravelly 

 situation. Bentham's "Handbook of the British 

 Flora," fourth ed., says that in Britain this grass is 

 " only known for certain on the sandy sea-coasts of 

 Norfolk and Suffolk, and in the Channel Islands ; " 

 and Low's " British Grasses " calls it one of the rarest 

 British grasses, found on the sandy coasts of Norfolk, 

 Suffolk, Dorset, and Jersey. Under these circum- 

 stances it may be interesting to you and to your 

 readers to know of this rare grass having been found 

 so many miles inland. — Walter Conhvell. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Glacial Action near Grasmere. — In June last, 

 during a holiday in the Lake District, I was struck 

 by the great number and size of glacial moraines near 

 the outlet of Easedale Tarn, left without doubt by 

 the ice during the last glacial period in that wild 

 upland valley. On the north side, just above the 

 outflow from the tarn, the heaps are so many, and 

 almost artificial in appearance (looking very like a 

 quantity of soil and stones shot by "navvies" from 

 a platform, only grass-grown) that they seem to 

 indicate a long period of time, when the ice lingered 

 slowly retreating or again advancing, in slightly 

 different courses, before the glaciers finally left the 

 rough rocks bounding the valley on three sides, and 

 are well worthy of special study by any geologist 

 staying at Grasmere. — Horace Pearce, F.G.S., Stour- 

 bridge. 



" The Sponge-Remains of the South of 

 England."— Dr. G. J. Hinde, of the British 

 Museum, has forwarded us a copy of his paper from 

 the "Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society " 

 on the sponge-remains in the lower and upper green- 

 sand of the south of England. To students of 



geology this is an invaluable memoir, and the six 

 beautifully prepared quarto plates of sponge struc- 

 ture, etc., will greatly aid students in diagnosing 

 the specimens, and in working them out with the 

 microscope. 



"British Petrography." — We have received 

 part 6 of this important work, and are pleased to 

 state that it fully maintains its high character, artistic 

 as well as scientific. The coloured plates (accom- 

 panied by Key-plates) are devoted to Diabase, 

 Olivine Diabase, and Dolerites. Mr. J. Harris Teall 

 commences with the British Peridotites in the pre- 

 sent part. Geological students have now a fine op- 

 portunity of obtaining a reliable monograph on the 

 structure of our igneous rocks. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Do Migratory Birds return to their old 

 HAUNTS ? — Much evidence has been given by natura- 

 lists to prove that birds of passage return to their old 

 haunts. The following, I think, may be of interest 

 to some of the readers of your valuable paper. For 

 the past two springs a cuckoo, gifted with a decidedly 

 peculiar note, has visited this neighbourhood. Within 

 the last fortnight it has again arrived. Its song 

 consists of three clear distinct notes, " Cuck-coo-coo," 

 the second note being a semitone above the last. 

 This it never varies. We all know that towards the 

 end of its sojourn the cuckoo suffers from hoarseness, 

 or, as the country people say, "changes its tune." 

 Although this bird suffers in a similar way, yet it 

 still maintains its peculiar song — three notes. As far 

 as I can ascertain it does not wander beyond the 

 same limits— from the park here to a little hill about 

 half-a-mile distant. I think these facts not only 

 conclusively prove that the cuckoo returns to its old 

 quarters year after year, but that it also restricts 

 itself during its stay in this country to the same 

 locality. — F. C. Taylor, F.R. G.S., Summerleaze, East 

 Harptree. 



Cats and Rabbits Crossing. — A reader of 

 Science-Gossip has written to me from New York, 

 of the name of A. Mathews ; but, he not giving me 

 his full address, I have to thank him through the 

 columns of Science-Gossip for the information 

 given regarding my query in the May number as to 

 cats and rabbits crossing. The writer states that " in 

 the little village of Caldnell on the shore of Lake 

 George, in Natten co., New York, there was a few 

 years ago a breed of cats that the inhabitants of that 

 village called the 'rabbit cats.' They were grey 

 and white cats, with short hind-legs and short tails. 

 They hopped like a rabbit ; in all other respects 

 were like Maltese and white cats. I have seen two 

 of these cats myself."— Rev. S. A. Brenan, Glendun 

 Lodge, Cnshendun, co. Antrim. 



Fungus in Water. — Can any reader inforrn me 

 what the name of the fungus is that grows in a 

 mixture of calendula and water ? One appeared in 

 a closely corked bottle. It resembles somewhat the 

 vinegar fungus, only it is white and wrinkled, like 

 thin white kid or tissue paper. At one end there is 

 a protuberance like a root. The liquid was mixed 

 about two years ago. In the month of January last 



