1878. 



AND HORTICULTURIST. 



371 



on being touched, springs shut and catches what 

 is put into it ; and it is by this peculiar piece of 

 mechanism that insects are caught. The won- 

 <ierful discovery opens up again the question of 

 the true relation in the great plan of Nature be- 

 tween flowers and insects. It is believed that an 

 occasional cross is beneficial to a species, and that 

 insects are the great agents by which in certain 

 kinds of flowers foreign pollen is brought, to ef- 

 fect the cross. Insects should be regarded as the 

 flowers' friends. So long as these captures were 

 regarded as mere accidents, one might rest satis- 

 fied with an explanation on record, off"ered by 

 Professor Asa Gray, that it simply proved there 

 Avas no benefit unmixed with evil in the world. 

 But, if we find that there are in flowers traps 

 deliberately set to catch insects, which we sup- 

 pose engaged in a special design to cross-fertilize 

 these flowers, it is impossible to conceive that 

 these cross purposes can be both working to the 

 one end. Dr. Hunt suggests that possibly the 

 plant is really insectivorous, and that the insects 

 it traps are used to nourish the flower in its 

 •eff"orts at producing seed. But, as only the leg 

 or tongue is caught, and the insect, if unable to 

 tear its body away, remains to dry up, it is diflfl- 

 'cult to conceive just how the insect can benefit 

 the flower. That the visits of insects are of 

 very little use for cross-fertilization may be in- 

 ferred from the fact that in Asclepiadaceous 

 flowers freely visited by insects not one flower 



In view of this difficulty of believing that 

 snakes are oviparous or viviparous according to 

 circumstances, it is curious to see the following 

 in the English papers now. It can, at any rate, 

 do no harm to remind our friends, that while 

 Mr. Gosse's facts seem to be unchallenged, they 

 are of exactly the same nature as those which 

 went to them from this side of the Atlantic, and 

 that such a statement can now appear without 

 that Satanic picture being appended to it, shows 

 at least a healthy state of progress ; and we shall, 

 no doubt, before long hear of a full belief in 

 what is just as certainly a fact, that under some 

 circumstances, snakes do take their younf^ 

 for protection into their mouths. As the little 

 boy wrote, "Snakes is funny things.'' 



Mr. Phillip H. Gosse had a boa which was 

 with eggs. For a long time it manifested dis- 

 comfort and restlessness, being savage and irrit- 

 able, till at length it produced a family of young- 

 ones. Knowing it was the habit of this snake 

 to incubate its eggs, Mr. Gosse was greatly sur- 

 prised at the event ; and the startling question 

 occurred to him: When circumstances are un- 

 favorable for the deposition of eggs, could a 

 snake retain them until the young are hatched? 

 Mr. Gosse's surmises have been confirmed by 

 similar occurences at the Zoological Gardens 

 and by other writers, who, in the subsequent 

 interval, have also given careful attention to the 

 habits of ophidians, and have produced valuable 



in a hundred perfects a seed-vessel. The great I scientific works on the subject. The fact is now 

 question still remains : If not for nutrition nor ' well ascertained that not only Chilobothnis, but 



for cross-fertilization, what are the insects' visits 

 for? It can scarcely be for the insects' good, 

 when the visits terminate so disastrously to the 

 visitors. — Independent. 



Ovi-viviPAROUS Creatures. — A few years 

 since correspondents of the Gardener'' s Chronicle 



several other oviparous species may at pleasure 

 be rendered viviparous by retarding the deposi- 

 tion when circumstances are unfavorable for 

 them. In fact, we find that we must almost dis- 

 card those old distinctions of "oviparous " and 

 "ovoviparous," which German authors tell us are 



and some other English periodicals took strong ! "ot founded on any other ground than a greater 



exceptions to Mr. Thomas Meehan's statement, 

 that snakes would sometimes protect their 

 young from danger by gathering them into their 

 throats, and that some batrachians and ophi- 

 dians, which, under usual circumstances deposi- 

 ted eggs, under other circumstances would bring 

 forth their young alive. Even the editor of the 



or less development of the foetus in the egg 

 at the time of laying ; or on the nature of the 

 exterior covering of the egg, which is thicker 

 and leathery in those which take some time in 

 hatching, and slighter and membranous in those 

 which are hatched either before or on deposition. 

 Hybrid Graft Apples. — Out in the west 



Gardener'' s Chronicle sympathised so much with I there is a discussion about graft hybrids, in 

 the objections as to assist one of these articles ' which the name of the editor of the Garden- 

 with a facetious cut, in which some creature i er's Monthly is brought in. It appears 

 with a tail, was supposed to be modelled after agents are pusing some wonderful new varieties, 

 that of the father of lies, and to be an evolution, ' originated by grafting, and the editor of the Gar- 



working far into the future, of one of Meehan's 

 voung snake swallowers. 



dbner's Monthly is quoted as proving that 

 hybrids may be obtained in this way. The editor 



