CORRESPONDENCE. 211 



forth to life and activity even after a retirement of unusually long 

 duration. — Oliver V. Aplix, Banbury, Oxon., Aug., 1882. 



[The fact of mollusks being able to sustain life through long periods 

 of hybernation, or to exist under conditions which would seem to an 

 ordinary observer to ensure death, is well proven. The species in- 

 habiting hot countries seem to be most capable of enduring long 

 periods of cessation of active life. Water snails {Ampullarid) have 

 iDeen found alive after being in a drawer for five years in India; and 

 South American Bulimi have been found alive after so long a period 

 as twenty months in packages ; and Madeiran Helices have been in 

 pill boxes alive for thirty months. A specimen of Helix desertonim 

 from Egypt was fixed on a tablet in the British Museum in 184G, and 

 in iSaO it was noticed that it had crawled out of its shell. It was taken 

 off the tablet and immersed in tepid water, and revived thoroughly. 

 Its 2>ortrait was taken, and may be seen in " Woodward's Manual," a 

 grand book. Australian fresh-water mussels have lived out of water 

 for a year. I have known Littorina Uttorea keep alive in a box six 

 weeks. Doubtless this is a power acquired by these creatures graduallj' 

 through long periods of time, and under the varying conditions under 

 which they are placeil. .Estivation in summer droughts is analogous 

 tc hybernation in winter, although the action of the heart is more 

 powerful in summer tlian in winter. To conchologists of any experi- 

 ence it (.s known how qiickly moUusca arise from their sleep, either in 

 summer or winter, if the conditions of the atmosphere change — damp 

 in summer, warm days in winter ; and all who have observed these 

 creatures abroad (tropics) have remarked how quickly, upon the occur- 

 rence of rain after a diy period, the puddles become alive with snails 

 and other aquatic life. In our own country it is curious to see how 

 soon on the sandy dunes by the sea Helix vir<jata var. submoritimd, and 

 Bulimus acutus cover the ground in myriads after rain following hot 

 days ; and this has given rise to the idea that it sometimes rains snails. 

 Much may be said on this matter did time permit. The incident 

 related by Mr. Aplin is worthy of record as illustrating this power of 

 sustaining life in a given species, and is an item of interest in its life- 

 history. — G. Sherkiff Tye, Birmingham.] 



Le.\fixg of the 0.\k .vnd Ash. — During the first and second weeks 

 of May in the present year, the leafing of these trees was carefully 

 noted. Many hundreds of them were observed in South Beds and 

 North Herts, and with one exception the oak was before the ash. The 

 exception was noteworthy. It was one of a row of several which were 

 growing alternately with oaks. This was not only more forward in its 

 leafing than the others, but more so than any of the oaks that were 

 near. On a closer inspection it was observed that it was the only 

 barren ash tree thereabout, and the conclusion arrived at was that, not 

 having been exhausted by fruit-bearing, it was more vigorous, and 

 hence unfolded its leaves under a less extei'ual stimulus. Subse- 

 quently to this other trees were noted, and so far as limited 

 observations were carried, the barren ash trees were more forward 

 than those that had borne fruit the previous season. — J. Saunders, 

 Luton. 



[I think that Mr. Saunders is right in his opinion that the earlier 

 leafing of some of the ash trees he noticed was constitutional. I have 

 noticed the same circumstances myself. In a former note. Vol. III., 

 p. 145, I mentioned that some of the beeches in the lane from Duke 

 Bridge, Maxtoke, were in full leaf, whilst other becohes growing so 



