HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE- GOSSIP. 



281 



excluded, alone; a muddy place on the sands a number 

 of marsh plants have sprung up, and some of the 

 species are growing in great abundance, many of 

 them being at this date (July 1st) in full flower. I 

 have observed the following : — Ranunculus sceleratus, 

 Nasturtium officinale, Stellaria uliginosa, Epilobium 

 hirsutum, Callitrichc verna, Veronica Anagaffis, 

 V. Beccabunga, Alisma Plant ago, J uncus glaucus, 

 y. lampocarpus, y. bufonius, Scirpus setaceiis, 

 Alopccurus gcniculatus, and Calabrosa aquatica. The 

 first and last-named species are both common on the 

 coast between Leith and Portobello, but the others 

 appear to be new. Now the question naturally 

 occurs, how do they happen to be springing up 

 there ? I am not aware of any satisfactory explana- 

 tion that can be given, and supposition will throw no 

 light on the subject. But as all who take an interest 

 in the matter will have their own opinions, the fol- 

 lowing is given as a possible, if not a very feasible, 

 one. We may suppose that a stream once entered 

 the frith at this place, that aquatic and marsh plants 

 grew in and around its margin, that its mouth was 

 gradually encroached upon and covered by the sea, 

 and the marsh plants disappeared. But their seeds 

 remained in the sand in a state of dormant vitality, 

 and withstood the action of salt-water and other 

 adverse influences, perhaps for many years, till now, 

 surrounded by conditions favourable to their develop- 

 ment, they are again springing up into life and 

 luxuriance. — D. Douglas, Leith. 



A Day at Cliveden. — By the kind permission 

 of his Grace the Duke of Westminster, I was en- 

 abled, on Saturday, July 6th last, to take my class at 

 Westminster Hospital for a field-excursion through 

 the above grounds. The day was, in every sense, 

 favourable for such an excursion, and the result was 

 well worth the journey to Taplow. We were for- 

 tunate enough in the space of three hours to collect 

 some 119 different species, representing thirty-nine 

 natural orders. The walk from Taplow station to 

 Cliveden is one of the best to be found round London 

 for its abundance of flowers of all kinds, and the 

 gravel-pits en route are a storehouse of treasures to 

 the enthusiastic botanist, who will find himself amply 

 rewarded for any trouble taken by studies of many 

 of our most beautiful wild-flowers, from Verbascum 

 Thapsus, which grows in rare luxuriance, down to the 

 humble Fedia olitoria. The Hypericacese are well 

 represented, no fewer than eight species being seen, 

 and Boraginaceae, Dipsacea:, Solanacece (including 

 Atropa belladonna) and Onagracere form prominent 

 features in the neighbourhood. A longer search 

 would doubtless have only considerably raised the 

 number of orders represented, seeing that our in- 

 vestigations, hurried as they were, produced the above 

 number. — H. IV. S. Worsley-Benison. 



Curious Places for Nests. — I dare say your 

 readers will be able to recall curious instances of the 

 choice birds have made in selecting a place for a nest, 

 but perhaps none more eccentric than the follow- 

 ing. A short time back a tomtit took possession of 

 a beehive, deserted by its proper inmates, and, having 

 cleared out the comb, filled the circumference of the 

 hive with wool and moss, in the centre of which it 

 built its nest and reared its young. And a friend 

 now sends me another curious instance. In his garden 

 were four inverted 12-inch pots. The titmouse 

 must have had curious stairs down to his nest, which 

 was budt on the ground in the last pot. — George 

 Dowker. 



Hawks in Ireland. — Can you give me any infor- 

 mation about the various species of hawks to be 



found in this locality, as we have observed four distinct 

 varieties, and have captured and trained two? The 

 one we have at present is ruddy-brown on back and 

 head, with black bars, tail also barred, eye black, full, 

 and encircled with yellow band of skin, beak with 

 tooth or notch in upper mandible, emarginated wing, 

 with notch or sinuosity situated near the end of the 

 quills, breast fawn-colour, with black markings 

 perpendicularly ; he has a moustache of black hairs on 

 the cheeks, head round and full. The first hawk we 

 had was quite different : he had a flattened head, with 

 projecting ledge over the eye, which gave him quite 

 a sinister expression ; back very dark brown, breast 

 white, with horizontal black bars, very long toes, and 

 curved claws. Both these birds were taken from the 

 nest and tamed. As I see natural monstrosities some- 

 times mentioned in your journal, I mention a deformed 

 chicken which was hatched here and preserved by me. 

 It has four legs, three of the legs being at one side, 

 and of these three legs two have the elbow-joints 

 reversed (and also the thigh-joint) ; there is but one 

 thigh-joint for the two superfluous legs, the third leg 

 at that side has a thigh-joint in the natural position ; 

 all the legs are perfect as to feet, claws, &c. This 

 bird chipped the shell, but died in coming out. It is 

 a Bramah. 



Izaak Walton. — Perhaps some of the readers 

 of Science-Gossip may be interested to hear that a 

 marble bust has just been placed in St. Mary's 

 Church, Stafford, of Izaak Walton. The ceremony of 

 unveiling was performed by the Earl of Lichfield. 

 The bust has inscribed upon it, "Izaak Walton, 

 Piscator; born in the parish of Stafford, August 9th, 

 1593 ; baptized in St. Mary's Church, September 

 2 1st, 1593 ; buried in Winchester Cathedral, Decem- 

 ber 19th, 1683. Erected by public subscription, 

 1878." The bust was decorated by a Stafford lady 

 with various water and other plants, such as the 

 gentle old fisherman loved so well, and which still 

 grow luxuriantly among the bright streams, so plenti- 

 ful about his native town, where the author of the 

 "Complete Angler" first imbibed his love for angling, 

 and still greater love of nature. The poor of Stafford 

 receive still an annual benefit from the friend whose 

 bust they can now look at, and which will, in a 

 measure, enable them to realize their kind benefactor. 

 The "Complete Angler" has had its adverse critics, 

 but Charles Lamb, in a letter to Coleridge, the poet, 

 dated October, 1796, speaks of it in these words : "It 

 would sweeten a man's temper at any time to read it ; 

 it would Christianize every discordant angry passion : 

 pray make yourself master of it." The " Complete 

 Angler " has gone through well-nigh sixty editions in 

 this country alone. — E. Edwards. 



Spider Instincts. — Seeing a paragraph in your 

 September number illustrating the possession of an 

 acute instinct in spiders encourages me to trouble you 

 with one or two observations of a like nature that have 

 come across myattention in watching spiders' motions. 

 I was watching recently the completion of a web, and 

 observing the apparent self-satisfaction with which 

 the spider at the finish settled down, after some 

 tightening and fortifying processes, in the centre. 

 It seemed to me that the spider in question settled 

 down as if in the full happiness of a domestic 

 establishment — say, house, pictures, and so on, and 

 the only remaining need would be the daily bread 

 that he would require. Reflecting thus, I wondered 

 how far he would resent any infringement or slight 

 disturbance upon his "castle;" to ascertain which, 

 I put a small curled-up leaf through, or partly so, one 

 of the interstices at the lower part of the web. I w.is 



