Natural History. 189 



11. Tenacity of Life in Laroa. — Dr. Yule states, that "the 

 larva of a carnivorous beetle, sent to me from Inverary, not 

 merely lived, but moved briskly in strong alcohol, the day after 

 it was enclosed in a phial, filled with that liquor. Bonnet found 

 that the larva of papilio brassicae, frozen under a temperature 

 of 14° Fahr., revived perfectly on being thawed. — Edin. Phil. 



Jour. xiii. 73. 



• 



12. Argonauta Argo. Naples. — Academy of Science, Dec. 14. 

 1824. — The Chevalier Pole read two memoires on the argonauta 

 argo of Linnaeus, caught on the coast of Pausillipo, near Naples, 

 which he had the opportunity of examining whilst alive. He de- 

 scribed the organization and parts of the animal, and has deter- 

 mined the most curious points of its generation. He has been 

 able to remark, by means of the microscope, that the shell of this 

 insect exists with the animal whilst yet in the egg ; and what is 

 still more extraordinary is, that the animal is not naturally at- 

 tached to the shell. Conjectures are ventured upon the manner in 

 which the shell is developed.—/?^. Ency. xxvi. 912. 



13. Recent Vegetation of Ancient Beans. — " As I happened to be 

 at Naples, when first Herculaneum was discovered, 1 should have 

 told you that some leathern bags of beans, answering exactly to 

 our kidney ones, were found in several corners of their window- 

 seats. The Romans were very fond of that kind of supper, as 

 appears by a line of Horace : 



' Oh quando faba Pythagoras, &c' 

 Some English gentlemen were curious enough to sow them on 

 their return ; and notwithstanding their having been, to appear- 

 ance, dead for so many centuries, yet did they grow and pro- 

 duce. Dr. Laws on tried the experiment in a small garden of 

 his at Chelsea, and it succeeded." — Monthly Mag. lx. 98. 



14. On tlie Origin of Ergot. By General Martin Field.— Ge- 

 neral Field states, that his intention is not to support or oppose 

 any theory of the org in and nature of ergot, but simply to repeat 

 the facts as he observed them. The field of rye examined was 

 within fifty yards of the house, (New Fane, Vermont,) and of that 

 kind known in the neighbourhood as the Norway, or White, 

 Rye, which has been observed to be more productive of ergot 

 than the English spring rye, or that said to be from the Isle of 

 Candia. Ergot has been very abundant in this vicinity during 

 the last season. 



" The field of rye, which I very frequently examined, was in 

 full blossom about the 3oth of June, 1824, but I discovered no 

 appearances of ergot till the 22d of July. From that time until 

 the 12th of August, when the rye was harvested, it might be 



