148 BRITISH HYDRACHNIDiE. 



Fig. 1, d. — Fourth leg of male. 

 1, e. — Palpus of ,, 



2, — Ventral view of Nescea longicornis, female. 

 3. — Eggs of Nescea carnea, as deposited on side of glass. 



3a, ■v 



36, 



3c, I Showing progress of development of the egg. 



3d, 



3e, I 



3, f. — Dorsal side of larva at time of hatching. 



3, g. — Larva, ventral view, three days old. 



The Burning Tree of Burmah. — There has lately been 

 added to the collection of plants at the Botanic Garden, Madras, 

 a tree bearing on the underside of its leaves stings which leave no 

 outward sign when they pierce the skin, though the sensation of 

 pain persists sometimes for months, and is especially keen on 

 damp days or when the place which has been wounded is plunged 

 into water. The natives in the parts of Burmah where the tree 

 grows are said to be in such terror of it that they fly in haste when 

 they perceive the peculiar odour which it exhales, and if they 

 happen to touch the tree they fall on the ground and roll over and 

 over on the earth, shrieking meanwhile. Dogs and horses touched 

 by it run wildly about, biting and tearing the parts of their bodies 

 that have been touched. — Pharm. JourtiaL 



Distribution of Seeds by the Wind. — BoUey {Pop. Science 

 News) records some interesting facts on the distribution of seeds 

 by the wind. In two square feet of a three-week-old and three- 

 inch-deep snow-drift, on the ice of a pond ten yards from any 

 weeds, he found nineteen weed seeds, and, in another drift, simi- 

 larly situated, thirty-two seeds representing nine distinct species. 

 While the wind was blowing twenty miles an hour, he poured out 

 a peck of seeds upon the snow-crust, and ten minutes after one 

 hundred and ninety-one wheat grains, fifty-six flax seeds, forty- 

 three buck-wheat seeds, and ninety-one (American) rag-weed seeds 

 were found in a trench thirty rods distant from where they had 

 been poured out. — Pharm. Journ. 



