378 Scientific Intelligence. 



BOTANV. 



33- On the Nature of Gulls. — In a memoir that M. Virey has inserted in 

 the Journal de Pharmacie, for July 1823, he states, that with a view to 

 ascertain the internal structure of the vegetable excrescences commonly 

 called Galls, he has subjected to a microscopical investigation the spongy 

 interior of the great galls of the Tozin oak, (Quercus Toza,) those of the 

 corn Saw-wort, (Serratula arvensis,) and the central portion of the galls 

 upon the rose-bush, (vulgarly called in England Robin Redbreast's pin- 

 cushions.) The conclusion at which M. Virey has arrived is, that these 

 substances do not consist of vegetable fibres, properly so called, but that 

 the swelling of the cellular tissue of the plants is occasioned by the ir- 

 ritation produced by the acrid venom of the Cynips which there deposits 

 its eggs: that this irritation is analogous to that excited in the cellular 

 tissue of animals by the prick of a thorn ; finally, that the gallic acid and 

 the tannin of galls are contained in tubular vesicles. These two prin- 

 ciples, the abundance of which constitutes the excellence of the best gall- 

 nuts, are evident under the form of an opaque, brown, and grumous 

 matter. 



ZOOLOGY. 



3U Phi/salia Arethusq.-— Dr Eichwald has published some very inter- 

 esting observations on this species. The body is an oblong bag, the upper 

 part of which is attenuated, and contains an aperture. This bag is thicker, 

 and less transparent than an inner one, with the walls of which it is in 

 contact at the sides, but not at the extremities, unless at the aperture. 

 The branchiw constitute a crust on the right side, of complicated organiza- 

 tion. The inner bag is supplied with secreted air, by which the body is 

 enabled to rise to the surface of the water. The cavity in the interior of 

 the outer bag, opposite the aperture, is plicated, and exhibits many open- 

 ings, the termination of the canals of those organs with which the inferior 

 disc of the body is covered. These our author divides into two kinds. 

 The tubuli auctorii, terminate in an expanded disc or sucker, and are con- 

 sidered as organs of nutrition. The funiculi proliferi, are longer, narrow- 

 er, more complicated, and considered as subservient to the reproductive 

 system, according to the gemmiparous mode. They probably likewise 

 serve as prehensile organs. — See Mem. de VAcad. Imp. des Scien. de Si 

 Petersbourg. t. ix. 453. Tab. xv. (F.) 



GENERAL SCIENCE. 



35. Hatching of Fish. — The Chinese have a method of hatching the 

 spawn offish, and thus protecting it from those accidents which generally 

 destroy a large portion of it. The fishermen collect with care, on the 

 margin and surface of water, all those gelatinous masses which contain the 

 spawn offish; and after they have found a sufficient quantity, they fill 

 with it the shell of a fresh hen's egg, which they have previously emptied, 

 stop up the hole, and put it under a sitting fowl. At the expiration of 



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