Natural History. 427 



7. New and hardy kinds of Olives. — Two new species of the 

 olive have been discovered in the southern district of the Crimea ; 

 this discovery will render it practicable to rear this useful tree in 

 much more northerly climes than has been hitherto possible. The 

 shoots, which were planted in the botanical garden of Nikita, have 

 lived through one of the hardest winters ever known, though the 

 severity of the weather would have been fatal to the Italian or 

 French olive. — New Monthly Mag. xxvii. 438. 



8. On a dangerous Plant growing among Water' Cresses. — The 

 procumbent water parsnep, or Sium Nodiflorum, is a dangerous 

 plant of the umbelliferous class, which grows mixed with water- 

 cresses in springs and streams ; when not in flower it so much 

 resembles the latter, that it is with difficulty distinguished except 

 by a botanist. Water-cresses are of a deeper green and sometimes 

 spotted with brown, and the extremities of the leaves are more 

 round, and especially the last leaves, which are in pairs larger than 

 the others, and undulated at their edges. The water-parsnep, on 

 the contrary, is of an uniform green, the ends of its leaves are 

 longer and narrower, conical at the extremities, and toothed at the 

 edges. The best method of knowing them well is, to examine them 

 in July, when their flowers are expanded, and when they may be 

 thoroughly distinguished from each other. 



9. Habits of the Egyptian Scarabceus. — From the Notes of a 

 Traveller in the Libyan Desert : " October 12th. Being on watch 

 this night, I caught, for the first time, the Scarabeeus ateuchus sacer y 

 or chafer, with which the imaginations of the ancient Egyptians so 

 frequently busied themselves. My attention was attracted by a 

 noise close to my side, and athwart the darkness I discovered a 

 large rolling ball. Conceiving it to be a crab or land tortoise, I 

 took it into my hand, but found it to be nothing but a lump of 

 horse-dung, and immediately afterwards I perceived a similar ball 

 come rolling towards me. Upon holding my lantern down and 

 minutely examining this strange machine, I found that it con- 

 cealed a large black chafer, who drove it forwards by means of his 

 long hind legs ; and as it proceeded it gradually increased in size 

 by the continual accumulation of sand ; this indeed became so con- 

 siderable at last, that the insect itself was scarcely perceptible. It is 

 more than probable, that the Egyptian priests took advantage of this 

 deception to mystify their followers, and that their veneration for 

 the chafer, or scarabaeus, arose from that circumstance. Upon a 

 further examination, with the aid of my lantern, I discovered several 

 animated balls of a like description more than three inches in dia- 

 meter. My Arabian companions, however, did not appear to take 

 notice of them." — N. M. Mag. xxvii. p. 482. 



10. Method of killing Insects for Preservation in Cabinets. — This 

 OCT.— dec, 1829. 2 F 



