THE society's NOTE-BOOKS. 113 



Spinnerets of Spider (PI. XII., Fig. 5).— These are from an 

 Epeira, most likely the common garden spider. It is with the 

 first pair of spinnerets, a, a (there is a slight depression in the 

 cushion of the spinning-tubes, giving each of the spinnerets the 

 appearance of being double), that the spider spins the radii of the 

 web, the threads of which are not sticky. The circular threads 

 which are not sticky are spun by the little pair of spinnerets in the 

 middle, which I call the second pair, b, b. These non-viscid cir- 

 cular (or, more properly speaking, "spiral") threads are not found 

 in a finished web, except in the litde patch in the middle. The 

 sticky circular threads are, I believe, spun by the third pair of 

 spinnerets, r, r, but this stickiness is not due to anything peculiar 

 in the construction of the spinnerets, which are identical in those 

 spiders which spin no sticky threads at all. I cannot say what 

 makes a spider's web sticky. My conjectures on this point will 

 be found in Science Gossip, 1874. H. j\I. J. Underhill. 



Sectionof Tongue.— The papillae are of three kinds— ////^rw, 

 fungiform, and circumvallate. The latter are only found at the 

 root of the tongue. Tht filiform, as named from their shape, are 

 of small diameter in comparison with their length, and are sup- 

 posed to have to do with the tongue merely as an organ of touch. 

 The fungiform are much larger and fewer in number, and are 

 found chiefly on the sides and tip of the tongue ; they are con- 

 cerned (hypothetically) in the sense of taste, as are also the cir- 

 cumvallate papillae. E. C. Bousfield. 



Onosma tauricus (see page 47), natural order, BoraginacecB. — 

 Thanks to a host of patient botanists, we have a wonderfully full 

 account from their general point of view; but it remains for micro, 

 workers to investigate thoroughly from theirs such micro, pecu- 

 liarities as the plant within its limits may possess. As yet, it 

 seems to me that they have only recognised that many plants of 

 this group have a central hair, at whose base lie certain cells, in 

 such prominence of development from their kindred contiguous 

 cells in the cuticle as to attract attention, and when these are dis- 

 posed in a stellate or rosulate group, and so form an object of 

 strikmg beauty, they pass into acceptance and record among what 

 are popularly called micro, objects. Such basal cells are certainly 

 a peculiarity to many plants of this natural order, although not 

 confined to it. The finest and most beautiful example of them I 

 ever saw was on a leaf of Borago verrucosa, a native of Arabia ; 

 and it is rather odd, that the finest specimens of oil-glands were 

 also on an Arabian plant, Origanum nervosum (a labiate), but I do 

 not know where to procure either plant. 



Of Onosmas, besides the well-known 0. tauricum, there are in 



New Series. Vol. I. i 



1888. 



