280 



DISCOVERY 



I was travelling down a canal with my superior, and as 

 we came to a lock he said: " I must get that bunch of 

 bananas that I have noticed for some time " ; and, calling 

 out to the lockmen, he ordered them to bring him the 

 bunch. Instead of a bunch with fine large fruits they 

 brought him a miserable bunch of half-grown fruit. He 

 got angry, refused it, and ordered a better one to be 

 brought and, as there was some delay, he jumped out 

 of the boat and, walking towards the plant he had seen, 

 pointed in its direction while some distance away. The 

 lockmen replied in a contemptuous tone, " Oh ! that's 

 a ' seeded ' banana," and promptly ran off for the bunch, 

 while my superior, seeing his ridiculous position, walked 

 back to the boat, as he said, with his tail between his 

 legs, while one of the men ran up to him with two or 

 three bananas broken open to show that they were full 

 of seeds. 



The plant has been grown from seed, as will be seen 

 from the following extract from Roxburgh's Flora Indica : 



" In the course of two years from the seed received from 

 Chittagong these attained to the usual height of the cul- 

 tivated sorts, which is about lo or 12 feet . . . and ripen 

 their seed in five or six months afterwards," i.e. after 

 flowering. 



I kept a seed by me for a long time. It was somewhat 

 smaller than the size of a broad bean, but more rounded 

 with a projection at one side, black in colour, and about 

 a twelfth of an inch thick. 



Yours, etc., 



C. H. De Mello. 

 Riverside, 

 C.\sTLE Street, S.\lisbury. 

 August I, 1922. 



SECONDARY SEXU.\L COLOURS AND 

 STRUCTURES 



To the Editor of Discovery 



Sir, 



Mr. Huxley, in his article on " Sex Determination " 

 in the August number of Discovery, states that the 

 female requires to be courted by the male in order that 

 the sexual instincts may be stimulated, and definitely 

 states that this requirement is the cause of the brilliant 

 colours and conspicuous structures of many male animals. 



As Discovery is largely read by the general public, 

 it seems particularly undesirable that this very contro- 

 versial consideration should be stated as if it were an 

 established scientific fact. 



A slight survey of the distribution of these sexual 

 differences at once shows that female courtship is not 

 the determining factor. Since in nature brilliant colora- 

 tion is admittedly a danger to the wearer, it might be 

 anticipated, according to Mr. Huxley's views, that the 

 males of powerful or unpalatable animals would especially 

 be free to exhibit this require.Tient for the courtship of 

 females, because of their relative freedom from the attacks 

 of enemies. Actually, the reverse is the general rule; 

 it is among palatable and defenceless animals that the 

 most brilliant males are to be found, whereas in unpalat- 



able and powerful animals the sexes are usually alike. 

 Compare, for instance. Crows, Kingfishers, Shrikes, 

 \'ultures. Geese, and Swans with Pheasants, Ducks, and 

 Finches. 



It is clear that some factor other than the requirement 

 of courtship by females determines the occurrence and 

 magnitude of secondarv sexual differences. 



Yours, etc., 



J. C. MOTTR.\M, 



Director of the Research Department. 

 The R.\DiuM Institute, 



PoRTL.\ND Pl.'^CE, LONDON, W. 



August 23, 1922. 



Sir, 



SHELLEY'S BOAT, THE ARIEL 

 To the Editor of Discovery 



In the interesting article on " The Fate of a Great 

 Lyric Poet," the boat built for Shelley is described 

 (p. 185) as ail open boat twenty-eight feet long, ketch- 

 rigged. Later on, the Ariel is said to have been schooner- 

 rigged (p. 2 1 6). 



The illustration on p. 217 shows a yawl, and if the 

 crew are drawn in anything like proportion, the length 

 is more like forty-eight feet than twenty-eight feet. The 

 tall mast, large sail area, and low freeboard suggest a 

 decked vacht rather than a small open boat. Perhaps 

 the vessel shown in the illustration is Bvrou's Bolivar, 

 or it may be only a conventional representation of a 

 British yawl yacht of the period. 



Soundings on the chart may show if a boat could have 

 been recovered from the bottom of the sea fifteen miles 

 off Viareggio. 



Yours, etc., 



John A. Stew.\rt. 

 6 Clifton Place, 



Gl.\sgovv. 

 Afgust, 2, 1922. 



[I am not prepared to lay down the law on what type 

 of vessel the Ariel reallv was. Contemporary descrip- 

 tions of the boat vary too much to allow anyone to make 

 a final statement. In describing the boat as " ketch- 

 rigged " I followed the writer of the biography of Shelley 

 (in the People's Library), who appears to me to have 

 considerable first-hand knowledge of sea-craft. The 

 later reference to the boat mentioned by Mr. Stewart 

 is contained in an extract from the Roj^al State Archives 

 of Lucca, which certainly describes it as " schooner- 

 rigged." As to its length, contemporary descriptions 

 agree that it was twenty-eight to thirty feet. 



The illustration on p. 217 was taken from Trelawny's 

 Recollections of the Last Days of Shelley and Byron (Moxon, 

 1858), published during the author's life, and was accom- 

 panied by the following legend : " Captain D. Roberts, 

 R.N., del. Villa Magni, Shelley's residence on the Gulf 

 of Spezzia, a.d. 1822, with the boat (the Don Juan) in 

 which he was wrecked." The Don Juan was the original 

 name of the Ariel. — Ed.I 



