HA R D WICKE' S S CIE NCR- G O SSIF. 



259 



■wrought silver, and bears a blossom like a purple 

 sunflower. Can any of your readers, either here or in 

 America, give the writer any further information as 

 to the botanical name of this beautiful plant, which 

 would doubtless prove a valuable acquisition to our 

 •conservatories, if not already introduced ? — J. F. 

 Cranswick, Leeds. 



" The Fig, the Mulberry, and the Quince." 

 — This is the title of a shilling brochure written by 

 Mr. D. T. Fish, the well-known horticulturist, and 

 issued at the "Bazaar" office. It deals with the 

 history, varieties, cultivation, and various diseases of 

 these little-cultivated plants. 



Contrast between the Colours of Flowers 

 AND Fruits. — A brief reply is due to the friendly 

 critique of your correspondent Mr. Hanson, which 

 appeared on page 143, on the article in a previous 

 number, with the above title. It has always been 

 understood by myself that seeds with an indurated 

 testa, do pass through the intestinal canal of animals, 

 with the embryo in most cases uninjured. In con- 

 iirmation it may be mentioned that as a rule, in pro- 

 portion as the size of a seed is increased, so is the 

 •density of its closely investing covering, by which 

 the embryo is preserved from injury by the mastica- 

 tory and digestive organs. As an illustrative series 

 may be mentioned the seeds of blackberry, currant, 

 gooseberry, grape, hawthorn, cherry, sloe, damson, 

 and plum. Your correspondent, however, has arrived 

 at a different opinion from his reading of the " Origin 

 of Species," or at any rate that it "has held true 

 only to a very limited degree." Reference is par- 

 ticularly directed to the chapter on Geographical 

 -distribution, for which my best thanks are due, as it 

 had escaped my attention. From this chapter as it 

 appeared in the latest edition of the work, the 

 following sentences are extracted, " Living birds 

 can hardly fail to be highly effective agents in the 

 transportation of seeds ... I have never seen an 

 instance of nutritious seeds passing through intestines 

 of a bird, but hard seeds of fruit pass uninjured through 

 • even the digestive organs of a turkey." "But the 

 following fact is more important : the crops of birds 

 -do not secrete" gastric juice, and do not, as I know by 

 trial, injure in the least the germination of seeds ; 

 now after a bird has found and devoured a large 

 supply of food, it is positively asserted that all the 

 grains do not pass into the gizzard for twelve or 

 eighteen hours. A bird in this interval might easily 

 be blown to the distance of 500 miles, and hawks are 

 known to look out for wild birds, and the contents of 

 their crops might get readily scattered." Surely the 

 above extracts warrant one in assuming that Dr. 

 Darwin believes, both that the hard seeds of succu- 

 lent fruits pass uninjured through the intestinal canal 

 of birds, and that these are effective agents of the 

 distribution of such seeds. These views are entirely 

 in accordance with the suggestions thrown out in the 



article on " Contrasts of Flowers and Fruits" which 

 appeared in the April number of Science-Gossip ; 

 but as the paper in question was rather a seeking 

 after truth than the expression of a matured opinion, 

 it no doubt was wanting in perspicacity, hence your 

 correspondent's failure in arriving at its conclusions. 

 After a careful consideration of all the facts that have 

 come under one's notice, the following theory seems 

 most in accordance with them. That in the struggle 

 for existence during a long series of generations, 

 those seeds and fruits ' that had a tendency to succu- 

 lence and colour, were most attractive to birds, and 

 that these tendencies were intensified by inheritance 

 and natural selection. It is also worthy of notice 

 that in those fruits that are distributed by mechanical 

 agencies there is a suppression both of colour and 

 succulence. — J. Saunders. 



GEOLOGY. 



The Journal and Proceedings of the Royal 

 Society of New South Wales for 1879 forms 

 a stoutish and official-looking volume of 250 pages, 

 and it is crowded with evidence of active scientific 

 work in many directions. Among others we find the 

 following papers : — " On the Geological Formations 

 of New Zealand compared with those of Australia,' 

 by Dr. Hector ; " On the Occurrence of Remarkable 

 Boulders in the Hawkesbury Rocks," by C. S. 

 Wilkinson, F.G.S. ; " On the Languages of Australia 

 in connection with those of the Mozambique and the 

 South of Africa," by Hyde Clark; "On the Ana- 

 tomy of Sistichipora with a Monograph of the Genus," 

 by the Rev. J. E. Tenison Woods. The address of 

 the President contains a very lengthy and enthusiastic 

 tribute to the well-known geologist, the late Rev. 

 W. B. Clark, F.G.S. — " the first explorer who pro- 

 claimed the probable auriferous riches of Australia." 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Blackbirds. — We have been much interested in 

 a pair of blackbirds, which have been nesting about 

 our garden for some time. The hen is of the usual 

 blackbird colour, but the cock, which is a fine bird, 

 has on its right side a band of feathers \ inch wide, 

 and an inch and a half long, purely white. It is on 

 the left side spotted with white, and also has a few 

 similar white spots on the right side, together with 

 the white band. Under the throat the feathers are a 

 light grey, in the shape of a crescent moon, present- 

 ing somewhat in appearance the throat of the ring- 

 finch, only the feathers in colour are greyish-white, 

 and do not form a ring round the neck, as in the 

 latter-mentioned bird ; the rest of this blackbird's 

 feathers are perfectly black, as is usually the case. 

 We judge from the movements of the male and 

 female birds, that they still have a nest, though we 

 know not exactly where to find it. In referring to 

 Mary Howitt's interesting book, "Birds and their 

 Nests," we find she mentions a singular variety of a 



