74 Short Communications. 



may, perhaps, be deemed too minute and trifling; but I was 

 not myself previously aware that the insect in question, when 

 once fairly settled upon a flower, still kept its wings in most 

 rapid vibratory motion; nor did I ever before witness so good 

 an exhibition of its pumping a blossom with its proboscis. I 

 have observed the vibration of ^ the wings in other dipterous 

 insects (Muscae [flies], for example) when settled on an object 

 which could not afford them any supply of food. Some of the 

 Diptera are, perhaps, ofaliother insects, those which evince the 

 greatest power arid dexterity of wing. I am, Sir, yours, &c. 

 — W. T.Brce. Allesley Rector*) t^April'A*. 1832. 



The Poisonous Properties-. -Aofi'tfan Seeds- of the Laburnum 

 {Cytisus LaMi-num'L.). — It is ; generally believed that the 

 seeds of the laburnum are very poisonous ; and, in conse- 

 quence, children . are' frtfo^U en tly; warned against eating them. 

 Theirjcpoja^aQua o^HHtyiia<ials<ifimeiition»ed in some botanical 

 works|;orjbuti<>a'sl nounqtifeeJiisi taken of this opinion in Dr. 

 Christisou/s. TregtisgiitttHrPcdkefosfibr WDv. Beck's Medical 

 Jurisprudence, it may ibe/bf'JSDinei importance to mention the 

 following tircuirataoaeis^iCkrlSaturikiy last (September 15. 

 1832), I was called to see three children, of the ages two and 

 a half, five, and about seven respectively, who, having been 

 sent into the. garden ; to amuse themselves, were induced to 

 eat a small quantity of tlief seeds' of the laburnum, which they 

 mistook for mouse peas.* Very shortly afterwards all the 

 children were taken very sick, and vomited repeatedly, the 

 youngest and the -oldest- with/ less violence than the other. 

 After vomiting, they were soon relieved, and in the evening 

 had recovered their, usual health and spirits. — George John- 

 ston, M. D. Berwick upon Tweed, Sept. 17. 1832. (Commu- 

 nicated to the Berwickshire Naturalists' Club, Sept. 19. 1832.) 



About thirteen years ago, I knew two young ladies at 

 Cambridge, who were rendered unwell by steeping the seeds 

 of laburnum in their mouths, to the end of passing a needle 

 the more easily through them, in threading them into neck- 

 laces. The -ladies were in age about 18 and 23, and the 

 symptoms of their illness were headach and slight vomiting : 

 after the vomiting they soon recovered. The seeds of labur- 

 num are kidney-shaped, dark brown, have naturally a po- 

 lished exterior, and, when perfectly ripe and dry, are so hard 

 that a needle is not easily forced through them. On this last 

 account it is that they are occasionally soaked previously to 

 threading them ; but, I believe, not if the needle can be 



* The seeds of all our wild vetches, more particularly those of O'robus 

 tuberosum, are, in the north of England and south of Scotland, called 

 mous^'p^EtebyacHilddeipfiT ni briuol alBgtfiSM'^ QaGnty-alfiffm 



