18Y6.] 



A ND HOE TIQ UL T URIS T. 



31 



one whose practical knowledge was equal to the 

 task of harmonizing such details with the more 

 popular features which must of course actuate 

 the leading commissioners of such an exhibition. 



Academy of Natural Sciences of Philadel- 

 phia. — The natural sciences are in so many ways 

 the handmaids of horticulture, that we are all 

 particularly interested in their prosperity. The 

 Philadelphia institution has the finest collec- 

 tions, taken as a whole, of any in America ; and 

 its printed proceedings take a high rank all over 

 the world. The old building, though very large, 

 was completely inadequate to the collections, 

 and its large botanical department had to be kept 

 in what was contemptuously styled by those 

 familiar with more favored buildings, a "dust 

 bin." 



Some ten years ago a move was made to put up 

 the building we illustrate, and the hope entertained 

 by some that it might be effected before the Amer- 



have to be built sometune. It may be that the 

 good President, Dr. Ruschenberger, who, with a 

 few devoted fi-iends, have worked towards the 

 accomplishment of what has been done, with an 

 energy and determination against obstacles that 

 very few know of, many not live to see the final 

 building finished; and yet it is not at all impossible 

 that when the great public see how much has 

 been done with a few talents, may be tempted to 

 aid the workers soon with a good deal more. 



From the Proceedings we take as follows : 

 — The Apple Hair worm. — It will be remem- 

 bered by our readers that last j'ear we called 

 attention to a long slender hair worm found in an 

 apple at York, Pa., and Avhich was supposed by 

 some to be the common Hair worm, Gordius 

 Aquaticus, but which was found by Dr. Leidy to 

 be an old acquaintance of his of quite a different 

 character. In the Proceedings of the Society just 

 issued, we find the followins; additional note : — 



ican "one hundred years" should arrive. Money 

 was subscribed from friends continuously from 

 that time to this, and only as much work done as 

 could be paid for. About a quarter of a million 

 of dollai*s has been raised in this way, and one 

 wing of this building — this much larger than the 

 whole of the old building — ^has at length been 

 completed, and the collections removed there, 

 though not yet arranged. Considering that this 

 has all been done without any remarkable lega- 

 cies and bequests, that have so often aided simi- 

 lar institutions, and in this way a whole city get 

 the credit of what is really due to the generosity 

 of one or two individuals, it speaks very Avell for 

 the general interest felt in science in Philadel- 

 phia. The maia hall and south wing will yet 



Prof. Leidy exhibited a living specimen of 3Ier- 

 mis acuminata, which had been sent to him for 

 examination, the 8th of last August, by Mr. P. H. 

 Foster, of Babylon, Long Island, N. Y. It was 

 one of two specimens which Mr. Foster had 

 taken from apple worms found concealed in a 

 woolen rag tied around the trunk of an apple 

 tree in his garden. The Mermis is7i inches long 

 and had been retained alive in a box with moist 

 sphagnum. It exhibits a condition which Prof. 

 L. had observed on several previous occasions in 

 other species of Mermis. An intermediate por- 

 tion of the body, apparently from injury, had 

 died and was decomposed, while the extremities 

 held together by the integument, were still alive 

 and active. This condition has been observed to 



