24 GLEANINGS, 



Hybrid Brambles. — In the .Journal of BotiuKj for December, there 

 is an interesting paper, hy Dr. W. O. Focke, on " Some Hybrid 

 Brambles," in which the author gives an account of his e.xperiments in 

 crossing the nearly allied varieties — Ihihna (iratut and B. hifrom, by which 

 he has obtained a plant which he considers to be identical with li. ViUi- 

 caulis. He says, " Now the question arises, what is the widely dis- 

 tributed B. ViUicmdi.s ? Is it, indeed, a constant race derived from a 

 hybrid ? It is not easy to understand how this can be the case, as JR. 

 (imtus and B. hir'ronx grow scarcely anywhere at the same spot. In 

 the gi'eater part of Germany, where Jl. MUicdiili.-^ is abundant, and 

 probably also in England, there is never seen either of its supposed 

 parents." He has also succeeded in producing hybrids by fertilisation of 

 B. Idaus L. and R. Belhirdi W. and N., with the pollen of B. Cecsiiis L. 

 The products are quite sterile, and that of B. Ichens resembles the spon- 

 taneous hj'brids described as B. Ccenio-Jihens, &c. 



Zoological Society.— Amon the additions to the Society's 

 menagerie during the months of August, September, and October are a 

 Cape hedgehog, (Erinacvm frontalis,) a young American tantalus, 

 (Tantalus luvulator,) a Brazilian marmot, ( Mamotus hra.tiliensis,) two 

 Guilding's amazons, (Chnjsotis (luilduuii,) two sooty coots, (Fulica 

 ardesiuca,) and a pair of African bnffalos, ( Buhalus cequinoctialis,) 

 acquired by purchase. 



Rare Birds. — The Rev. F. O. Moi-ris, Nunburnholme Rectory, 

 Haj-ton, York, has drawn public attention to the necessity of something 

 being done to protect birds which yearly or occasionally visit our shores 

 "who come to us, but never return again whence they came," being 

 ruthlessly shot as soon as seen. He mentions the hoopoe, the blue- 

 breast, the golden oriole, the roller, the bee-eater, the Orphean warbler, 

 the great sedge warbler, the melodious willow warbler, and the Alpine 

 warbler, the chough, the rose-coloured starling, etc., as some of the birds 

 he would desire to have protected in oi'der that they might have a chance 

 of building, bi'eeding, and so becoming naturalised among us, " as beyond 

 all doubt some of them would if they were not destroyed." 



The Challender. — Measures are afoot for supplementing the 

 researches of the Challenger Exjiedition by a series of deep-sea dredgings 

 in the Indian Seas. These seas were pui-poscly omitted from the scope 

 of the Challenger's investigations. A new steamer is now being built in 

 India, and an oiRcer of the Coast Survey Department (Lieutenant Jarrad, 

 R.N.) has been commissioned to sec after the fittings and di'edging 

 appliances in England. Full information has been obtained fi-om the old 

 staff of the Challenger, and it is hoped that opei'ations may be started 

 next cold season (1H78-79.) In that case it is probable that the first steps 

 will be to run one or more lines of soundings across the Bay of Bengal in 

 such directions as may seem best. 



A fossil PennwKpara of the Palaeozoic age is described and illustrated 

 by Mr. Worthington G. Smith, in the (uirdenerf' Chronicle of October 20th. 

 It is the remains of a fungus found growing in tlic vascular bundles of a 

 Ijepidodendron from the coal measures, and the luimc he gives it is 

 FeronnsjHirite.f antiquariu-i. A criticism on the subject will be found in 

 The Academy for November 17th, p. 475. 



The Telephone. — At a recent meeting of the Society of Ai'ts, 

 Professor Graham Bell, the inventor of the telephone, gave an interesting 

 account of the experiments by means of which he had arrived at the 

 instrument in its present form, which, if not absolutely perfect, is rapidly 



