300 Queries and Answers, 



member whether we were one minute, or two, or three, but we continued 

 watching it, until afraid of being quite distanced by the rest of the party. 

 It was very unwillingly that we left it, while its light was yet burning and 

 increasing; the worm had moved in a circular direction, and the ring 

 of light (I think about 1 ft. in diameter), was very nearly completed ; we 

 wished to have seen it quite completed, and what direction it would next 

 take. The light had become somewhat fainter towards the beginning of 

 the track, and its continuity was broken in two or three places. This light 

 proceeded, I suppose, from the yellow substance discharged from the 

 wounded vesicles, and the interruptions >vere caused by the partial drying 

 up of that substance ; but what occasioned so extraordinary an expansion 

 of light, together with an increased brilliancy ? This, and its circular di- 

 rection excited my attention and interest. 1 have no knowledge of ento- 

 mology, and am very likely speaking of a mere common-place; in this case, 

 you may please to make my communication more luminous than you find 

 it : should you insert it in your Magazine, some of your readers may be 

 disposed, tlirough the same medium, to enlighten, Sir, yours, — A. A. 



Orohdnchc minor. — Is Orobanche minor a parasitical plant ? In the 

 clover fields in this neighbourhood, where it abounds, it does not appear 

 to be attached to any other plant ; but in my garden, this year, I had several 

 plants, and the roots were so firmly attached to those of Prenanthes mu- 

 ralis, that it was impossible to separate them, without destroying the fibres 

 of their respective roots. — D. Stock. Bungay ^ July 28. 1828. 



The Worm of Corruption. — In a narrative in the 7\mes newspaper of 

 July 28., of the disinterment of the body of the patriot Hampden, in Hamp- 

 den church, Buckinghamshire, in July, 1828, and where it had been buried 

 in June, 1643, it is stated that " the skull was in some places perfectly bare, 

 whilst in others the skin remained nearly entire, upon which we discovered 

 a number of maggots and small red worms on the feed with great activity. 

 This was the only spot where any symptoms of life were apparent, as if the 

 brain contained a vital principle within it which engendered its own de- 

 struction ; otherwise how can we account, after a lapse of nearly two cen- 

 turies, for finding living creatures preying upon the seat of intellect, when 

 they were nowhere else to be found, — in no other part of the body ?" Can 

 you, or any of your correspondents, throw any light on this subject? What 

 are the names of the insects or worms ? Do the maggots ever become 

 winged insects ? aijd if so, how do they escape ? Or do they die in the 

 larva or in the chrysalis state ? How do their eggs get there ? and if there 

 before the body was deposited, how does it happen that they remain so 

 many years before being hatched, seeing the nidus must have been equally 

 favourable for hatching at any one period during the last 150 years at least? 

 — S. T. July 29. 1828. 



The Bed and White hj/chnis dioica. — Sir James Smith much wished to 

 find a distinction between the Red and White iychnis dioica. I have 

 observed the pistils to be much larger in the latter, and I would ask if the 

 stigmas have ever been found revolute. — W. H,, E.N. Yeovil, August 5. 

 1828. 



Knowledge of Fossils. — I beg to be informed of the best plan of obtain- 

 ing a knowledge of fossils. To myself, and, probably, to many of your 

 readers, a description of the genus and order to which they belong, and in 

 what formation they are to be found, if accompanied by engravings similar 

 to those that adorn your work, would be highly acceptable to others as well 

 as to, Sir, yours, &c. — Vectis. Isle of Wight, Aug. 2. 1828. 



Bearing young Pheasants. — I should be obliged if any of your corre- 

 spondents could inform mc of the best mode of rearing young pheasants, as 

 I find, after having attempted to rear some for two seasons, that they die 

 off very suddenly as they arc throwing out their crop and tail feathers, 

 without any appearance of being any way sick or affected. 1 feed them very 



