HARD WICKE 'S S CIENCE- G OSSIF. 



i6i 



concerning some parasites found upon Hydra ficsca, 

 your correspondent may be interested to know that 

 on Good Friday last I found, in a pond at Epping 

 Forest, several specimens of the above zoophyte, and 

 on all of them parasitic Infusoria, I had no doubt at 

 the time that the Infusorian was the Trichodina pedi- 

 cuius, and I found on referring to the Micrographic 

 Dictionary (article Hydra) that my surmise was cor- 

 rect, and that both T. pcdicithis 2Si^ Kerona polyporttm 

 are sometimes found upon hydra, and considered to 

 be an indication of want of vigour and imperfect 

 health. I must say, so far as my specimens were 

 concerned, I saw nothing to warrant this conclusion. 

 -J. A. S. 



Hyalina Draparnaldi. — In reply to your cor- 

 respondent Mr. Charles Hedley, of Mentone, I beg to 

 say that after my sending the notice that appeared in 

 April of my having found Hyalina Drapartialdi 

 (Beck) in England, I received a letter from Mr. 

 Gwyn Jeffrey, in which he claims that the Clifton 

 shell is his variety comjsacta of Zonites ccliariiis. If 

 therefore it is to be called a variety of cellarius at 

 all, it had better rest under his name. But as all 

 Continental authorities consider it a distinct species, 

 and it is published under the name of Hyalina Dra- 

 parnaldi in all catalogues, books, &c., it seems to me 

 a great pity to add to the many complications of 

 conchology by giving it another name. I have been 

 told by good authority that it proves itself quite dis- 

 tinct from cellaria, and is the type of a little isolated 

 group. For further information on the subject, I can 

 refer Mr. Hedley to Hcrr Clessin, of Ochsenfurt, or 

 Dr. Boettger, of Frankfort-on-the-Maine — both are 

 courteous and learned men and have gone deeply 

 into the subject. — J. Fit z- Gerald, Folkestone. 



Larus atricilla v. Lar-us ridibundus, — Under 

 the above heading J. D. in your last issue says in 

 giving the Latin synonyms of the laughing gull, and 

 the common black-headed gull, I " make the mistake 

 of calling the former L. atricilla, and the latter L. 

 ridibundus. " I did not enter into the synonymy of the 

 two species, but used the name by which each is best 

 known to British Ornithologists, and I fail to detect 

 the error to which J. D. refers. With regard to the 

 strictures referred to in previous communication, 

 I cannot think them too severe ; such instances 

 have become so frequent of late, and want of accu- 

 racy in such records is so misleading, that it behoves 

 the recorder to take every precaution before publish- 

 ing the occurrence of any species the identity of 

 which it is at all difficult to determine. — T. S. 



TURBELLARIA. — In many ditches and sluggish 

 streams are to be seen multitudes of little black 

 moving objects, which when touched, or taken out 

 of the water, immediately contract into what looks 

 like a drop of black jelly. They glide over the 

 surface of the soft mud, or on the surface of the water 



with their backs downwards, by a slow steady move- 

 ment, but how this locomotion is effected is not seen. 

 Close examination, however, leads us to conclude 

 at once that it is due to a succession of minute contrac- 

 tions and elongations, which ordinarily are quite im- 

 perceptible. They have a sucker at one end, and are 

 extremely like microscopic leeches — to which indeed 

 they are closely allied, for I take them to be Turbel- 

 ^aria. In size the common species vary from that of a 

 good-sized Rotifer to about half an inch in length. It 

 is said that some species attain the length of several 

 feet. — C. Francis Young. 



BOTANY. 



Petals, a degraded Form of Leaves. — In 

 Mr. J. E. Taylor's valuable book upon flowers, there 

 is much that is exceedingly interesting and suggestive 

 of thought with respect to petals being in fact de- 

 graded or modified leaves, with suppressed internodes- 

 and an arrangement in whorls. Mr. Taylor's argu- 

 ments appear in the present condition of our know- 

 ledge to satisfactorily demonstrate the truth of this 

 theory ; but there is one circumstance which seems 

 worthy of consideration, namely, that so little resem- 

 blance exists between leaves and petals as regards 

 form. Maybe the degradation or modification affects 

 the form as well as the colour and other character- 

 istics, but I do not see it anywhere suggested that 

 such is the case, and it would, I think, be a greater 

 and less easily explicable effort of modification to- 

 alter the forms of leaves than to alter their colour 

 or arrangement. — F. PL Habben, B.A. 



Daffodil.— On Easter Monday, the i8th of April, 

 I gathered in Eastnor Park, near Ledbury, a curious 

 form with only five perianth segments, and five 

 stamens, the crown being split to the base, and rolled 

 back, from which protruded the apparently metamor- 

 phosed sixth stamen, a long tongue-like appendage^ 

 lobed and crisped of the same colour as the corona, 

 springing from its inner base, and extending about 

 half an inch beyond it.— ^. D. Melvin. 



Ferns propagated by Cuttings.— Is it generally 

 known that ferns may be propagated from cuttings 

 of the fronds ? At the instance of an acquaintance I 

 made the experiment with about three inches of a. 

 bipinnate frond. The pinnre of one side were cut 

 off, the rib laid lengthwise, with its extremities a. 

 little deeper in the soil, and an inverted tumbler put 

 over it to keep it moist. In a short time small fronds 

 were developed from the base of the remaining, 

 pinnce. — Duncan Adamson, Motherwell. 



Flora of Warwickshire.— We are glad to see 

 that Mr. J. E. Bagnall is continuing his contributions- 

 to the " Midland Naturalist" on this subject. 



