54 



HARD WICKE 'S SCIENCE- G OS SIP. 



side of the head behind the mouth." The following 

 notes, although very crude and imperfect, may serve 

 to draw the attention of some of the readers of 

 Scie>."CE-Gossip to this interesting subject during 

 the season which is now approaching. I intended to 

 supplement them the following year, but had no 

 opportunity of doing so. 



About the end of March, 1874 (exact date uncer- 

 tain), I exposed a mass of frog's spawn to the light in 

 a glass tank, placing it in a window having a westerly 

 aspect. There was no fire in the room. The small 

 round ovum (fig. 41) gradually became elongated, 

 assuming at first an ovoid form, but afterwards one 

 end became attenuated, while a small groove formed 

 near the other extremity, and on the 4th of April 

 most of them presented the appearance shown in 

 fig. 42. As the embryo enlarged, these characters 

 became more marked, until, on the Sth, the form of 

 the head and the body could plainly be detected 



(fig- 43)- 



April Sth. Most of the embryos show signs of 

 animation. The movements consist of alternate 

 flexion and extension of the body, the animal folding 

 itself up laterally and then straightening itself at 

 intervals of about half a minute. Movements first 

 observed in the afternoon, and continued till sunset. 



April 9th. Movements more active than yester- 

 day, but still as restricted as before. 



April 10th. Movements not quite so quick as 

 yesterday, but more extensive and fish-like. 



April nth. Most of the tadpoles appear to be 

 trying to free themselves from the albuminous mass 

 by quick wriggling movements. External gills very 

 plainly seen on all (fig. 44). They first appeared as 

 two small protuberances, situated one on each side of 

 the hinder part of the head. These gradually elon- 

 gated, divided and subdivided, until they presented 

 the appearance of small branched filaments. 



April 1 2th. Tadpoles all out this morning. Ar- 

 range themselves in clusters with their heads all in 

 one direction. Most of them remain quite motion- 

 less, but a few swim actively about the tank. 



Stoke-on-Trent. 



A GOSSIP ABOUT NEW BOOKS. 



THE present winter has not been remarkable for 

 the number of scientific books issued. When 

 wars and the rumours of wars prevail, and the reading 

 world has its taste demoralized by the vivid descrip- 

 tions of such rapidly-succeeding events as those which 

 have marked the history of the last six months, it is 

 hardly to be wondered at that scientific literature 

 should retreat almost to the vanishing-point. But 

 there is a break in the clouds, and thoughtful people 

 are hoping that the storm will clear away as fast as 

 it gathered ; then we shall return to soberer literature 

 than war and anti-war newspaper leaders, with a sense 



of relief and a fervent thankfulness for our narrow 

 escape. 



Notwithstanding the paucity in the issue of first- 

 class scientific books, the appearance of a new volume 

 from the pen of Darwin is always sufficient to create 

 interest. And perhaps of the works which that in- 

 dustrious author has recently published, none is more 

 important than the present work, entitled, "The 

 Different Forms of Flowers on Plants of the same 

 Species " (London, John Murray). Herein Dr. Dar- 

 win has entered into the minutest and fullest investi- 

 gation of the inner structures of flowers. We now 

 find how abundant are the phenomena of trimor- 

 phism and dimorphism (only a few years ago deemed 

 so peculiar and exceptional), and that the number of 

 species bearing cleistogamic flowers is also being added 

 to every day ; that the latter structure of flowers, 

 produced by exceptional circumstances, varies from 

 one extreme to the other, and that these extremes 

 are connected by an inosculating series. Thus the 

 Grass Pea (Lathy?-us nissolia), bears cleistogamic 

 flowers, which can hardly be told from the ordinary 

 flowers just before the latter finally expand. At the 

 other extreme we find cleistogamic flowers which are 

 actually fertilized beneath the soil, and so are little 

 above the condition of subterranean buds. Dr. Darwin 

 further enters into the sizes and shapes of the pollen- 

 grain produced by different-sized stamens in dimor- 

 phic and trimorphic plants. The absolute necessity 

 for crossing to be produced, by the pollen from the 

 flower of one plant being carried to the pistil of 

 another plant, comes out strikingly in Dr. Darwin's 

 experiments ; for it is proved that very little is gained 

 by the pistil of a flower being fertilized by the pollen 

 of another flower borne by the same plant. The 

 origin of monoecious and dicecious flowers, of nectaries 

 in flowers, and many other singular and striking 

 botanical peculiarities, are here discussed in the easy 

 but philosophical style for which all the author's 

 books are celebrated. It is truly a rich treat to the 

 botanist to peruse such a book as this, and one to 

 which all our readers who have not yet read it will 

 thank us for attracting their immediate attention. 



"The Antelope and Deer of America," by John 

 Dean Caton, LL.D. (London, Triibner & Co.), is a 

 handsome treatise upon the natural history, including 

 the characteristics, habits, affinities, and capacity for 

 domestication, of the Antilocapra and Cervidce of 

 North America. This is a question of the deepest 

 importance in practical natural history, and one which 

 has been too much neglected. Books on wild animals 

 usually tell us more about their destruction under the 

 name of "sport " than of possibilities of their domes- 

 tication and utilization. Dr. Caton tells us he has 

 for many years kept in domestication the American 

 antelope, and all of the American deer of which his 

 book treats, except the moose and the two species of 

 reindeer. 1'his book deals with the important and 

 difficult subject selected by the author with a fulness 



