1 68 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept., 



Japanese Hehmngia of the Araliaceae, the saxifragaceous Phyllonoma 

 from the New World, and Polycardia (Celastrifiese) from Madagascar. 

 The common lime recalls, in a small degree, the same phenomenon, 

 the stalk of the inflorescence adhering to the lower part of the bract 

 and appearing to spring from the middle of that organ. Tropical 

 West Africa boasted already two genera with epiphyllous flowers both 

 belonging to the family Bixineae, and Mocquevysia, the new one 

 established by M. Hua (named after its discoverer, M. Mocquerys) 

 resembles these in some points, and is placed by its author in the 

 same natural order. 



If ordinary placental mammals have evolved from pouched 

 animals like the modern marsupials, rudiments of the pouch ought 

 certainly to be recognisable in some of them. Dr. H. Klaatsch 

 {Morphol. Jahrb., vol. xx., pp. 276-288, 1893), ^^s just made the 

 interesting announcement that such rudiments can actually be 

 observed in most placentals. Something of the kind has already 

 been found in the lemurs, and one author has supposed that rudiments 

 of the pouch can also be detected in the sheep. The detailed account 

 of Dr. Klaatsch's extension of the evidence will be awaited with 

 interest. 



M. Adrien Dollfus provides a first supplement to his Catalogue 

 of the Terrestrial Isopoda of Spain in the xxii. vol. of Anal. Soc.Espan. 

 Hist. Nat., 1893. The same mail brings to us a second paper of his 

 on this group of animals from the Canaries, which adds to our pre- 

 vious knowledge obtained through him in a paper dealing with 

 specimens from the Azores, Madeira, and the Canaries [Bull. Soc. 

 Zool. France, 1889, P- 12). Seven new forms are described, and the 

 essential portions figured, in Mem. Soc. Zool. France, vol. vi., 1893, 

 pp. 46-56. It is quite possible that diligent search in England might 

 reveal many interesting points in distribution of the wood-lice, and 

 even result in the discovery of new forms. 



Apropos of the " Plague of Wasps " in the South of England, 

 a correspondent suggests our calling in the assistance of the toad. 

 " A toad will," he writes, " sit for some time quite comfortably by a 

 wasps' nest (in the evening, of course) and pick up the belated 

 wanderers as they return home. The sting is absolutely disregarded, 

 and not the faintest attention is paid to the warning colours of the 

 wasp. An evening or two since I persuaded a large fat toad to take 

 up a position actually blocking up the entrance to a nest. He waited 

 there for a few minutes, during which he caught several wasps and 

 made unsuccessful shots with his long tongue at others." One might, 

 perhaps, instal a circle of toads round the orifice of the nest, and 

 then, after stirring it up with a long stick, depart to give free play to 

 the toads and wasps to fight it out between them. 



