1 10 Queries and Ajiswers, 



should be glad to know the names and natural history, a. Two cater- 

 pillars J A, by caterpillars nearly concealed by fine webs j c, empty cell. — 

 H. London, Nov. 8. 1831. 



Unojiened blossoms of Drosera rotundifolia. — Has any person ever seen 

 the blossoms of the round-leaved sundew (Drosera rotundifolia) fully 

 expanded ? It is so represented in the figure of it in the BncyclopcBdia of 

 Plants {[^, 233.), but in such a state it has never fallen within my observation. 

 Wishing to obtain a specimen of this little plant with its flowers in full 

 bloom, to sketch from, I have visited, at almost every hour of the day, 

 a bog traversed by a small rivulet, whose margin is thickly dotted with 

 its glowing leaves, looking as if they had indeed impaled drops of the 

 morning dew, to cool them through the day. I have watched it from 

 the time in which its slender scape first rises from amidst a bunch of cir- 

 cinate leaves, to that in which it forms at top into a nodding raceme ; but 

 never have I seen its minute white flower-buds unclose. They would 

 always appear as if about to open, and so lead me on in this hope, untU 

 the gradual enlargement of the seed-vessel within them warned me to give 

 up the expectation. Does this pretty lover at once of an exposed situa- 

 tion and of moisture, then, never expand its flowers, or does it open them 

 for a short time at sunrise, or when it is hidden beneath the soft twilight 

 of a summer night ? Perhaps some one more skilled in botany than my- 

 .^elf will kindly answer the question. — C. P. Surrey , Nov. 1831. 



The Ore called Mundick in Cornwall. — In the additions to the history of 

 Cornwall is the following curious account of raundick : — " In the working 

 of these tin-mines there has been often found mixed with the tin another 

 sort of ore which was yellow, commonly called mundick ; neglected for a 

 long time by the tinners ; and when it was worked along with the tin, went 

 all away in a smoke which was looked upon to be very unwholesome : but 

 lately it has been tried and wrought singly by some curious undertakers, 

 and is found to turn to very great advantage, by affording true copper : so 

 that, whereas, before, the value of the tin made it neglected ', now, the ex- 

 traordinary return that copper makes is like to lessen the value of tin. 

 This mundick, as in some respects it is very unwholesome, so in others it 

 is a sovereign remedy. Where there have been great quantities of it, 

 working in the mines was very dangerous, by reason of the great damps 

 and unwholesome steams which, often rising on a sudden, choked the 

 workmen. But for this it makes amends by an effect entirely contrary; 

 .for being applied to any wound before it is wrought, it suddenly heals it ; 

 and the workmen, when they receive cuts or wounds (as they often do in 

 the mines), use no other remedy but washing them in the water that runs 

 from the mundick ore. But if it is dressed and burnt, the water in which 

 it is washed is so venomous that it festers any sore, and kills the fish of any 

 river it falls into." What is the difference between pyrites and mundick 

 and how many of the qualities formerly imputed to the latter are fabulous ? 

 ^J.A.H. 



Humming in the Air. — In the miscellaneous observations of White, the 

 celebrated and often-quoted naturalist of Selborne, published a few years 

 after his death by Dr. Aikin, he mentions an audible humming in the air, 

 which occurs occasionally on the elevated parts of the Sussex Downs, 

 near that beautiful village, on fine still summer days ; which he is unable 

 to account for. Many of your readers must have heard similar sounds 

 in their summer rambles. I perceive, on reference to my journal, that the 

 sound was heard on the 24th of June, 1830, on an open part of the forest 

 at Wanstead, in Essex ; and again on the Downs, Hackney, in July last. 

 Now, it appears to me that the sounds do not proceed from bees, as you 

 would naturally imagine, but from vast quantities of small winged insects, 

 which at this period of the year are sporting in the air, and in such 

 weather are more stationary; for it is to be observed, that the humming is 



