143 Miscellaneous, 



of P. sylvestris, and planted them on the northern pent of the Lor- 

 beerberg, near Charlottenbrunn, 1800 feet above the level of the sea. 

 In the second year the plants made their appearance, of which, how- 

 ever, only one specimen of P. Pumilio succeeded. On the 9th of 

 Sept. 1839, I visited this spot and found the plants in the following 

 condition. The specimen of P. Pumilio is at its base one inch in 

 diameter, bends down immediately at its exit from the soil with de- 

 flected convexity, and divides at a distance of two inches into two 

 main branches, of which one is 12, the other 9 inches long. Each 

 of these branches again divides 1 inch from their origin into 5 or 6 

 diverging branches of from 5 to 6 inches in length, which all lie ex- 

 tended on the earth. The numerous leaves are stiff, fasciculate, 

 compressed, curvate, and shortened, just like those occurring on the 

 highest elevations of the Riesengebirge. As yet no flowers have 

 made their appearance. Now while this plant creeps on the soil, 

 the neighbouring specimens of P. sylvestris which germinated at the 

 same time have attained a perpendicular height of 10 to 18 feet, with 

 a diameter of from 21 to 3 J feet. — Linnaa, Part V. vol. xiii. 1839. 



ON THE NESTS OF THE FIFTEEN-SPINED STICKLEBACK^ OR GASTER- 

 OSTEUS SPINACHIA OF LINN^US. 



These nests are to be found in spring and summer on several parts 

 of our coast, in rocky and weedy pools between tide marks. They 

 occur occasionally near Berwick, but seem to be more common near 

 Eyemouth and Coldingham. They are about eight inches in length, 

 and of an elliptical form or pear-shaped, formed by matting together 

 the branches of some common Fucus, as, for example, of the Fucus 

 nodosus, with various confervse, ulvae, the smaller floridese, and coral- 

 lines. These are all tied together in one confused compact mass by 

 means of a thread run through, and around, and amongst them in 

 every conceivable direction. The thread is of great length, as fine 

 as ordinary silk, tough and somewhat elastic ; whitish, and formed 

 of some albuminous secretion. The eggs are laid in the middle of 

 this nest in several irregular masses of aboat an inch in diameter, 

 each consisting of many hundred ova, which are of the size of ordi- 

 nary shot, and of a whitish or amber colour according to their de- 

 gree of maturity. The further advanced are marked with two round 

 black spots, which are discovered by the microscope to be the eyes 

 of the embryo, at this period disproportionally large and developed. 

 Masses of eggs, in different stages of their evolution, are met with 

 in the same nest. It is evident that the fish must first deposit its 

 spawn amid the growing fucus, and afterwards gather its branches 



