HARD WICKE'S S CIENCE - G O SSI P. 



9* 



The former was taken near Dublin, and the latter in 

 England. 



The Barbastelle (Synolus Barbastellus). — This 

 evening (March 7th), whilst driving near Colchester, 

 I fancied I saw three bats that were new to me. I 

 struck at one with my whip and killed it. On picking 

 up my game, I was pleased to find the above bat was 

 my unknown friend. This district therefore can be 

 added to those in which this rare British mammal 

 occurs. — Henry Laver, F.L.S. 



BOTANY, 



Carex punctata, Gaud.— This species was sent 

 to tbe Botanical Exchange Club, labelled as follows : 

 — "Ledges of perpendicular rocks in theWatenvinch, 

 Tenby. — C. Bailey.'''' This exceedingly rare sedge 

 has hitherto been reported from several places in 

 Ireland, the Channel Islands, and Cornwall : we 

 believe the above locality is new to science. It is 

 very closely allied to Carex fulva, Good., but differs 

 from that species by its smooth humid fruit, which is 

 obscurely veined, but not ribbed. The fruit is also 

 pale green, but in C. distans, L., it is yellowish- 

 brown. The beak is slightly longer than in our 

 herbarium specimens, but the rough nut, tumid punc- 

 tate fruit, and tall slender stem, at once distinguish 

 this from its near allies. 



Vegetable Teratology. — I recently found a 

 singular monstrosity in Harleston Firs, Anagallis 

 arvensis, which had the petals transformed into leaves, 

 and the calyx also leaf-like. The plant was fertile. 

 On the Barnack quarries Trifolium procumbens, was 

 so called viviparous. — G. C. Druce. 



The "Rain Tree." — At a recent meeting of the 

 Linnean Society, Professor Thistleton Dyer described 

 the "Rain Tree" of Mogobamba, South America, 

 under the name of Pithecolobium saman. The so- 

 called "rain" is the fluid excreta of cicadas which 

 feed on the juices of the foliage, and its dropping is 

 therefore analogous to the "honey-dew " which some- 

 times drops from the leaves of lime-trees by the 

 agency of aphides. 



Polygala calcarea. — In the February number 

 of Trimen's yournal of Botany, Mr. James Britten 

 notes the occurrence of a specimen of Polygala cal- 

 carea in a collection of British plants presented to the 

 British Museum herbarium. It is associated on the 

 same sheet as Polygala vidgaris, and was collected at 

 Hughenden, Bucks, in June, 1865. It had not pre- 

 viously been recorded as occurring in that county. 



Monstrosity in R. bulbosus.— In a field near 

 Leicester, in June, 1877, I found a specimen of Ra- 

 nunculus bulbosus, having three completely deve- 

 loped whorls of petals, and nearly fifty stamens. 



Neither myself nor any of my botanical friends have 

 ever found similar specimens. If the petals were 

 developed from the stamens, the original number of 

 the latter must have been much greater than usual. — 

 Arthur Wheatley. 



Volvox globator. — In the neighbourhood of 

 Ashton-under-Lyne Volvox globator has been found, 

 by myself and others, in great abundance, from the 

 24th of last November (on which date it was first 

 detected in our locality) up to March. The pits 

 have been visited two or three times each month 

 since November, and several times we have got volvox 

 from under the ice. I myself gathered it from 

 under half an inch of ice on January 28th, some of 

 which were exhibited at the meeting of the Man- 

 chester Field Naturalists' Society on February 3rd. — 

 Thomas Whitelegg. 



GEOLOGY, 



The Influence of the Advent of a Higher 

 Form of Life in modifying the Structure 

 of an older and lower Form. — This was the 

 title of an important paper, by Professor Owen, 

 C.B., F.R.S., recently read before the Geological 

 Society. The author, after referring to the general 

 question of the modification of the structure of 

 organic forms produced by the action of external 

 influences, indicated that, in connexion with this, 

 changes in the nature of the prey of carnivorous 

 animals ought to be taken into consideration. He 

 inferred that cold-blooded aquatic animals formed a 

 much greater proportion of the food of Mesozoic than 

 than of Neozoic Crocodiles, and pointed out as con- 

 nected therewith the well-marked distinction between 

 the amphiccelian and proccelian type of vertebne re- 

 spectively characteristic of the two groups. The 

 proccelian character of the trunk-vertebrae better 

 adapts that part of the body to be sustained and 

 moved in air, and may be connected with the in- 

 coming in Tertiary times of mammalian prey inducing 

 the Crocodiles to rush on shore. The Mesozoic 

 Crocodiles were encased in a much stronger and 

 more complete dermal armour than their successors, 

 doubtless for their protection from the great Ich- 

 thyosaurs, Pliosaurs, &c, which coexisted with them ; 

 but as these passed away at the close of the Secondary 

 epoch, the armour of the proccelian Crocodiles has 

 become more scanty, and the diminution of weight 

 and rigidity thus caused would favour progression in 

 the air, and the rapidity of movement required for 

 capturing mammalian prey on land. The difference 

 in the position of the palato-nares, and in other related 

 gular and palatal structures, between the Mesozoic 

 and Neozoic Crocodiles is apparently connected with 

 the power possessed by the latter of holding sub- 

 merged a powerful mammal without permitting the 



