387 



SCIENTIFIC SIDE-LIGHTS 



Life 



1889. LIFE, INDIVIDUAL Fitting 

 into Broad Scheme of Nature Bee Seeking 

 Honey Fertilizes Flowers for Future Gen- 

 erations. At Torquay I watched for about 

 half an hour a number of these flowers 

 (Spiranthes) growing together, and saw 

 three bumblebees of two kinds visit them. 

 I caught one and examined its proboscis: 

 on the superior lamina, some little way 

 from the tip, two perfect pollinia were at- 

 tached, and three other boat-formed disks 

 without pollen; so that this bee had re- 

 moved the pollinia from five flowers, and 

 had probably left the pollen of three on the 

 stigmas of other flowers. The next day I 

 watched the same flowers for a quarter of 

 an hour, and caught another bumblebee at 

 work; one perfect pollinium and four boat- 

 formed disks adhered to its proboscis, one on 

 the top of the other, showing how exactly 

 the same part of the rostellum had each 

 time been touched. 



The bees always alighted at the bottom 

 of the spike, and, crawling spirally up it, 

 sucked one flower after the other. I believe 

 bumblebees generally act in this manner 

 when visiting a dense spike of flowers, as it 

 is the most convenient method ; on the same 

 principle that a woodpecker always climbs 

 up a tree in search of insects. . . . The 

 bee goes first to the lowest flower, and, 

 crawling spirally up the spike, effects noth- 

 ing on the first spike which she visits till 

 she reaches the upper flowers, and then she 

 withdraws the pollinia. She soon flies to 

 another plant, and, alighting on the lowest 

 and oldest flower, into which a wide passage 

 will have been formed from the greater re- 

 flection of the column, the pollinia strike the 

 protuberant stigma. If the stigma of the 

 lowest flower has already been fully fertil- 

 ized, little or no pollen will be left on its 

 dried surface ; but on the next succeeding 

 flower, of which the stigma is adhesive, 

 large sheets of pollen will be left. Then as 

 soon as the bee arrives near the summit of 

 the spike she will withdraw fresh pollinia, 

 will fly to the lower flowers on another 

 plant, and fertilize them; and thus, as she 

 goes her rounds and adds to her store of 

 honey, she continually fertilizes fresh flow- 

 ers and perpetuates the race of our au- 

 tumnal Spiranthes, which will yield honey to 

 future generations of bees. 'DARWIN Fer- 

 tilization of Orchids, ch. 4, p. 113. (A., 

 1898.) 



1890. 



Within Life of 



Organization Leucocytes and Ciliated Cells 

 in the Body. The individual lives of the 

 units [cells] are subordinate to the general 

 life in proportion as this is high. . . . 

 Even in the highest types, however, and 

 even when they are fully developed, unit 

 life does not wholly disappear: it is clearly 

 shown in ourselves. . . . [In the blood] 

 the white corpuscles or leucocytes, retaining 

 the primitive and ameboid character, ex- 

 hibit individual activities: send out pro- 

 longations like pseudopodia, take in organic 



particles as food, and are independently 

 locomotive. Tho far less numerous than the 

 red corpuscles, yet, as ten thousand are con- 

 tained in a cubic millimeter of blood a 

 mass less than a pin's head it results that 

 the human body is pervaded throughout all 

 its blood-vessels by billions of these sepa- 

 rately living units. In the lymph, too, 

 . . . these ameboid units are found. 

 Then we have the curious transitional stage 

 in which units partially embedded and par- 

 tially free display a partial unit life. These 

 are the ciliated epithelium-cells, lining the 

 air-passages. . . . The inner parts of 

 these unite with their fellows to form an 

 epithelium, and the outer parts of them, 

 immersed either in liquid or semi-liquid 

 (mucus), bear cilia that are in constant 

 motion and " produce a current of fluid over 

 the surface they cover," thus simulating in 

 their positions and actions the cells lining 

 the passages ramifying through a sponge. 

 The partially independent lives of these 

 units is further seen in the fact that after 

 being detached they swim about in water 

 for a time by the aid of their cilia. SPEN- 

 CER Biology, pt. ii, ch. 2A, p. 186. (A., 

 1900.) 



1891. LIFE, INFINITE AND ETER- 

 NAL Light Transports Us into. The rays of 

 light which fall in silence from the distant 

 splendors of the starry night bring to us, 

 then, the most curious revelations on the 

 state of creation in these inaccessible uni- 

 verses, and prove to us that the substances 

 and forces which we see in activity around 

 us exist there as well as here, producing ef- 

 fects analogous to those which surround our 

 field of view, developing the sphere of our 

 conceptions at the same time as that of our 

 observations, and permitting us to divine 

 the things, the beings, the populations, the 

 unknown works which reproduce in infini- 

 tude the spectacles of life, the sports of Na- 

 ture, and the varied operations of which our 

 solar system presents but an ordinary and 

 incomplete scene. Light transports us into 

 the infinite life. It transports us also into 

 the eternal life. FLAMMARION Popular As- 

 tronomy, bk. vi, ch. 6, p. 616. (A.) 



1892. LIFE IN INCESSANT PERIL 



Provision against Earthquakes " Earth- 

 quake Lamps " " Earthquake Coats." 

 The great danger of fire [as the result of 

 earthquake] may partially be obviated by 

 the use of " earthquake lamps," which are 

 so constructed that before they overturn 

 they are extinguished. It is said that in 

 South America some of the inhabitants are 

 ready at any moment to seek refuge in the 

 streets, and they have coats prepared, 

 stocked with provisions and other necessa- 

 ries, which, if occasion demands, will enable 

 them to spend the night in the open air. 

 These coats [are] called " earthquak^ 

 coats." MILNE Earthquakes, ch. 7, p. 129. 

 (A., 1899.) 



