26 



NATURE 



\May 13, 1875 



man. In my own garden, where I have had standing always 

 from ten to fifty svval-ms, and over which I thought 1 was watch- 

 ing with almost a fatherly affection, I have learned how utterly 

 selfish I was in looking forward to autumn, when, by the destruc- 

 tion of the industrious and unselfish bees, I could lay in for my 

 own consumption what they had so laboriously gathered in the 

 summer to sustain each other through the winter. I learned, 

 from their unselfishness, to divide with them, always leaving 

 enough to sustaiti the colony till the spring Should again bring 

 the flowers. 



I think, too, that both Sir John I.ubbock and your corre- 

 spondent are mistaken as to the object of beating pans, sounding 

 horns, and making other hideous noises in hiving bees. The 

 object is not, as Sir John intimates, originally to drive away evil 

 spirits, or to assert owna-ship, as indicated by Mr. Renshaw. It 

 is simply, as everyone knows who ever thumped on a pan, 

 sounded a horn, or yelled through a speaking trumpet on such 

 an occasion, to drown the voice of the queen or guides who are 

 to conduct the swarm to the new home which members of the 

 community who had been sent out, as the Israelites sent forward 

 Joshua and others, had found for them. 



Mr. Renshaw's law is probably good, but does not apply iti 

 the case trying. JOSIAH EMERY 



City of WilliaHlsport, Pa., U.S. 



Flowering of the Hazel 



It was with great interest that I read the communication from 

 F. D. Wetterhan, in Nature, vol. xi. p. 507. But I cannot 

 help expressing quite a dilferent opinion as to the bearing of 

 the interesting fact that proterandrous and proterogynous indi- 

 viduals are to be found in the same locality. From the structure 

 of the flowers and from insects never visiting the stigmas, I am 

 convinced that the hazel is a strictly anemophilous plant ; that 

 the red colour of its stigmas is solely an effect of chemical pro- 

 cesses connected with the development of the female flowers to 

 maturity, just in the same manner as in the female flowers of 

 the larch-tree and some other Conifera; ; and that likewise the 

 coexistence of proterandrous and proterogynous individuals in 

 the hazel relates solely to the influence of the wind, and not at 

 all to the agency of insects. 



Whilst in Primula, Pulmonaria, and many other entomophilous 

 plants, so admirably treated of by Charles Darwin, two kinds 

 of individuals, viz. , long-styled and short-styled ones, have origi- 

 nated from the positions of the anthers and the stigmas diverging 

 in different individuals in opposite directions — among the anemo- 

 philous plants in yuglans regia * and Corylus avellana, among 

 the entomophilous ones in Syringa vulgaris ■\ and Veronica 

 spicata,X two kinds of individuals, namely, proterandrous and 

 proterogynous ones, have originated from the periods of develop- 

 ment of the anthers and stigmas diverging in different individuals 

 in opposite directions. The effect in the two contrivances has 

 been the same, cross-fertilisation not only between different 

 flowers, but also between different branches, having become indis- 

 pensable. 



In dimorphous species, this cross-fertilisation, as is known, is 

 effected by the visiting insects touching with the same part of their 

 body the anthers of the long-styled and the stigmas of the short- 

 styled form ; and with some other part of their body the anthers 

 of the short-styled and the stigmas of the long-styled form. This 

 kind of intercrossing can apparently never be effected by the 

 wind ; whence long-styled and short-styled (dimorphous) species 

 are never to be found among anemophilous plants. But in these 

 the coexistence of proterandrous and proterogynous individuals 

 produces the same effect, the pollen-grains of the proteran- 

 drous individuals, of course, being transported by the wind only 

 to the stigmas of the proterogynous ones, and vice versd. 



Ljppstadt, May I Hermann MuLler 



Variable (?) Star in Sextans 



The following may be of interest to the readers of your 

 Astronomical Column : — 



About 24° north of, and a little preceding \ Hydrse (4 mag.), 

 is a star marked 5th mag. in Harding's large Ailas Novus Cce- 

 lestis (1822). This is now invisible to the naked eye, and of 

 about mag. 7. It is 1 9662 in I.alande's Catalogue, in which it is 

 rated at 44 mag. It seems difficult to understand how excellent 



* Delpino, " Ulteriori osservazioni," Parte II. fasc. ii. p. 337. 

 t H. MuUer, " Befruchtung," &c., p. 339, 

 t Ibid.p. 28s. 



observers like Harding and Lalande could have made a mis- 

 take of 2 magnitudes in the estimation of a star's brightness, 

 particularly as it is closely preceded by a ']\ mag. star (Lalande, 

 19646). So that probably this star has faded since 1822. ItS 

 position for the beginning of the present year is in R.A. 

 9h. 57m. 30*46s., and N.P.D. 98° 58' o"'42. 



Punjab, India, April 3 J. E. GORE 



Equilibrium in Gases 



Mr, Nichols, iti Nature, vol. xi. p. 486, advances the opinion 

 that in a vertical column of gas at rest the temperature does not 

 tend, as generally believed, to become equal throughout, but that 

 such a column is in a state of thermal equilibrium when the tem- 

 perature diminishes at the rate of 1° centigrade for every 233 feet 

 of ascent (or 1° Fahr. for every 129 feet). This is a question of 

 thermo-dynamics, and I am not mathematician enough to offer 

 any opinion on it from the theoretical point of view, but it 

 seems inconsistent with well-known meteorological facts. Were 

 it true, there would be, as Mr. Nichols points out, a constantly 

 renewed tendency for the lower strata to flow upwards in con- 

 sequence of their higher temperature and consequent relative 

 expansion. Such a tendency is no doubt very common, but Mr. 

 Nichols's theory would require it to be universal, and it does not 

 appear to exist in the absence of direct solar heating. Cumulus 

 cloud is an infallible proof of the presence of ascending columns 

 of air, and according to the report of the Austrian Polar Expe- 

 dition in Nature, vol. xi. p. 415, cumulus is never seen in 

 the Arctic winter ; and I have somewhere read the same respect- 

 ing the Siberian winter. The true CiUse of the accumulation of 

 heat in the lower atmospheric strata, to which upward currents 

 and the formation of cumulus is due, is, I have no doubt, that 

 usually assigned — namely, that the atmosphere is more pervious 

 to the heat of the sun than to heat radiated back from the 

 earth ; so that, as I think Tyndall expresses it, the sun's heat is 

 caught as in a trap. Joseph John Murphy 



Old Forge, Dunmurry, Co. Antrim, 

 April 30 



Curious Phenomenon of Light 

 Rowing onLoch Lomond recently, above'Luss, there were seen 

 to the north-west, at an apparent distance of about 100 yards, 

 two bright lines of prismatic light, 60° apart and on the level of 

 the water. Their length seemed to equal the breadth of a rain- 

 bow. Their violet ends were towards each other, and were 

 joined by a line of didl white light, to the middle of which the 

 sun and the spectator were at right angles. Standing in the 

 boat, the colour and brilliancy were lost, and only a diffuse white 

 light was visible. The time was 10 A.M. The sun was hot, the 

 sky cloudless, the air hazy and still, and the loch a mirrot. This 

 apparition fled before our approach for some minutes, till dis- 

 pelled by a slight breeze, which rippled the water. 

 Luss Wm. M'Laurin 



Destruction of Flowers by Birds 

 I enclose some] flowers of the common blackthorn, that 1 

 suppose to have been snipped off by birds. The bushes were 

 growing in the outskirts of a wood, in a very sequestered situa- 

 tion (near Dunstable). The upper branches appeared to have 

 chiefly suffered. The grass below was quite conspicuously 

 starred with the fallen blossoms. I can hardly think that human 

 intervention had anything to do with it. R. A. Pryor 



Hatfield, May 5 



[In the accompanying specimens the limb of the calyx (carrying 

 the stamens and petals) had been neatly cut away from the tube. ] 



OUR ASTRONOMICAL COLUMN 



ORBits OF Binary Stars.— Dr, Doberck, of Colonel 

 Cooper's Observatory, Markree, Co. Sligo, has published 

 the results of a new investigation of the elements of the 

 revolving double star o- Coronse Borealis, in which mea- 

 sures to the end of 1872 are iticiuded. The period of 

 revolution is increased to 843 years, which is longer than 

 any yet assigned to this star, Dr, Doberck's comparison 

 of his orbit with the measures of the late Rev, W. R. 

 Dawes affords another proof of the remarkable excellence 

 of that astronomer's observations, particularly in the last 



