0V1P0S1TI0N OF CRANE-FLY. — COUNT STERNBERG. 567 



crane-fly and some others were propelled to a great distance 

 like pellets from a pop-gun, I could not conceive what power 

 could reside in the ovipositor to produce such effects, as from 

 their conformation it could not be done by the compression 

 of air. I at last caught a gravid female just upon the point 

 of laying its eggs. When it began to lay they were propel- 

 led about three inches in a direct line from it. I could then 

 by the aid of a lens perceive by the successive distension and 

 contraction of the last segment of the abdomen, the passage 

 of the egg down the egg-tube. When it came between the 

 valves at the apex of the abdomen it remained a short time 

 stationary, when I observed at the base of the valves a strong 

 muscular contraction, which kept increasing until the egg 

 was forced out by the pressure of the valves upon it. In 

 exactly the same manner we oftentimes see children in sport 

 shooting the pippins (seeds) of apples from between the tips 

 of the thumb and fore finger. It will be evident from the 

 above description that it can be only very hard or smooth- 

 shelled eggs that can be ejected in the manner described. — 

 Id. 



Count Caspar Sternberg- Serowitz. — ( Born on the 6th of 

 January, 1761), died on the 20th of December, 1838, at Brz- 

 ezina, near Radnitz, in Bohemia. In literature his fame rests 

 chiefly on his Fossil Flora, ('Versuch einer geognostisch-bo- 

 tanischen Darstellung der Flora der Vorwelt, Prag. 1825'), 

 though his other botanical works, as that on the Saxifragea, 

 the Asclepiadece, and the Flora of Bohemia, are likewise held 

 in deserved and high esteem. In his country he will always 

 be honoured as one of its greatest benefactors. In 1822 the 

 National Museum of Prague was chiefly founded through his 

 exertions and liberality. He became the president of that 

 institution, to which he had presented his great collections 

 and library, and the existence of it has hitherto so much de- 

 pended on his individual support, that the Bohemian States 

 must make up the deficiency, or the institution will perish. — 

 TV. TVeissenborn. — Weimar. 



Nature of mineral precipitates. — At the meeting of the 

 Society of Friends of Natural History, held at Berlin, Jan- 

 uary 1 5th, Mr. Link communicated some observations on the 

 formation of crystals. If fresh precipitates of many of the 

 minerals are examined, they are found to be entirely composed 

 of little globular bodies, which change, under the eye of the 

 observer, into the crystals peculiar to the metal. This, how- 

 ever, is not effected by their juxtaposition, but by their 

 bursting into each other, and uniting like soap-bubbles. — 

 That these globules are hollow is not only proved by their 



