HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



191 



fiercely attacked a couple of newts, and drove them 

 away from a certain place in a small pond. We 

 searched for the brave little fellow's nest, but could 

 not find it. We should be glad to know if any one 

 else has observed the like. 



Buttercup Monstrosity. — Recently I saw a 

 very curious freak of nature in a buttercup {Ranun- 

 culus bulbosus). A double flower had grown on a 

 stalk formed by the cohesion of five or six ordinary 

 flower stalks, so that the flower seemed to grow from 

 the top of a vegetable ribbon of about an inch wide. 

 — John J. Came. 



Yew Poisoning. — The thanks of all your readers 

 are, I am sure, due to Mr. Modlen for his clear and 

 admirable paper on "The Poisonous Properties of 

 the Yew." The facts cannot be too widely known. 

 Perhaps you will allow me to give my experience as 

 to the effect of yew poisoning on poultry. Last 

 winter a large limb of a yew in the churchyard here 

 was broken off by the weight of the snow. The limb 

 was cut up on the spot, and placed, foliage and all, 

 in the poultry-yard. The fowls immediately began 

 to peck it. Its first effect was to "scour" them 

 considerably — the foliage passing through the alimen- 

 tary canal without much alteration in colour. THey 

 began to mope and lose their feathers, and present 

 altogether a most melancholy appearance ; but none 

 of them died. Of course the yew was removed when 

 it was found the fowls were eating it, but they pro- 

 bably had access to it for some days. I do not think 

 the poison interfered with their laying, or with the 

 wholesomeness of the eggs. With regard to the 

 berries, I often used to eat them when a child, but I 

 never crumbled or swallowed the stones, as I was 

 always told that they were poisonous, though the 

 pulp was harmless. There is a female yew on the 

 lawn here which is visited every autumn by haw- 

 finches, which eat the berries, and crack the stones, 

 I suppose for the sake of the kernels. This, and what 

 Mr. Lett tells us in your last issue of mice eating the 

 berries of Solatium dulcamara, reminds me of another 

 fact which bears out the truth of the familiar adage, 

 " One man's meat is another man's poison." The 

 late Mr. Darwin once showed me some beans of 

 strychnos which had been eaten through and through, 

 apparently by the larva of some fly or moth. They 

 had been sent him (he said) by a correspondent to 

 show that some living thing could be nourished on 

 what is to most animals a deadly poison. By-the-bye, 

 may I ask Mr. Lett whether the poisonous property 

 of the berries of Solatium dulcamara is really proved ? 

 I see C. A. Johns only speaks of them as " narcotic." 

 — R. S. Pattrick, Sellinge Vicarage, Kent. 



Old English Plant-Names. — It seems strange 

 that "cheese-rennet" should be the old English 

 plant-name for crosswort. I cannot discover that this 

 plant {Galium cruciatum) has ever been used in the 

 way which the ancient name indicates. " The 

 generic name is derived from ya\a, milk, one of the 

 species having been employed to curdle milk" (see 

 Barton and Castle's "Flora Medica," 1877). The 

 species referred to is evidently yellow bed-straw (G. 

 verum). Sowerby, after describing the yellow bed- 

 straw, adds : ' ' The power of this herb to coagulate 

 milk is well known, and Gerarde tells us the best 

 Cheshire cheese in his time was made with it." It is 

 easy to understand that "cheese-rennet" should be 

 the old English name of a plant possessing the 

 properties of the yellow bed-straw, but I fail to see 

 the reason for calling crosswort by such a name. 

 Perhaps Mr. Roberts will favour us with some further 

 information as to this. — A. G. Wheatcroft. 



Bellis perennis.— I yesterday walked over the 

 bare and thinly-turfed ridge of the chalk downs for 

 some miles, beneath a tropical temperature, in the 

 direction of Dorking. As far as I proceeded, I saw 

 nothing but diminutive daisies, with blossoms not 

 exceeding the third or fourth of an inch. I noticed 

 on the occasion of one of my previous walks that 

 the dandelions were all dwarfed, and presented an 

 equally remarkable appearance ; but I afterwards 

 learnt that they were in the habit of putting forth 

 larger leaves and blossoms later on in the year ; and 

 this, I conclude, may also be the case with the 

 daisies and other plants growing upon the scanty 

 soil and among the thickly-crowded vegetation that 

 covers the ridge of the downs, where the struggle 

 for existence is very perceptible. — A. H. Swinton, 

 Guildford, yuly Sl/i. 



Delhi Elastic Stone. — Can any of your readers 

 inform me what is the history and nature of the so- 

 called " Delhi elastic stone," of which specimens 

 reach the country from time; to time as curiosities ? 

 The only one which I have seen — brought from Delhi 

 by an officer — measures about nine and a-half inches 

 by two and a-half in width, and half an inch in thick- 

 ness ; it has the outward appearance of a piece of 

 coarse sandstone, of a cream or pale fawn colour, and 

 the angles are all rounded off, though the surface 

 shows no marks of friction. It will bend to a very 

 appreciable extent in any direction, and under careful 

 extension will yield in the direction of its length 

 slightly. Its symmetrical appearance and rounded 

 angles, with the absence of tool-marks, negative the 

 idea of its having been fashioned out of a block, 

 while its flexibility (for it is flexible rather than 

 elastic) suggests a composite character — some 

 organic matter, covered or incorporated with the 

 inorganic ; but I am assured that the fracture is 

 homogeneous in appearance. — C. E. Paterson. 



Frogs and their Enemies. — Your correspon- 

 dent, Mr. W. M. Williams, says: "Few animals 

 have more enemies than the frog." True ; I once 

 had a cat which was very fond of biting off and 

 devouring the hind-legs of frogs. One day I caught 

 her in the fact, and the screams of poor froggy were 

 heartrending to hear ; and yet in spite of this you will 

 constantly hear persons say " frogs have no feelings." 

 I saw several frogs minus their hind-legs before the 

 above occurred, and could not for the life of me 

 discover the cause. The wounds had healed most 

 perfectly, but of course all leaping power of the frog 

 was destroyed. — Mark Antony. 



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