Answers to Queries. 69 
southern parts of England, but is very rare in the north. It is 
called the “herald” moth, because it is said to indicate the 
approach of winter. —— 
Preparing Sections of Buds. ) 
Take a small piece of a twig—say, linden—having a bud at 
its upper end; fix well in section cutter, wet with alcohol, cut 
with a sharp knife into thin slices, keep flooding the knife with 
strong alcohol to keep the sections floating, and to keep them 
from falling apart. Do not let a drop of water touch the section, 
or it will cause it to fall to pieces. Now place in alcohol, faintly 
coloured with iodine green ; let them remain in for several hours 
until the colour disappears from the alcohol. Again put’ them 
into alcohol, this time coloured a little more deeply with eosin in 
place of green. Let them remain there till they are all pink. 
Then wash in two alcohols of 95 per cent., drop into clove oil for 
a few moments only, and mount in Canada balsam, ‘They are 
thus very instructive-—V. A. Laruam, F.R.M.S. 
The Wervous System in Sponges. 
This may be demonstrated by (1) osmic acid until the sponge 
is dark brown, then wash and place in 33 per cent. of alcohol, 
then in picro-carmine; (2) absolute alcohol, wash, then stain 
with alum carmine ; (3) corrosive sublimate solution, 40 per cent., 
followed by heematoxylin. The sections must be cut very thin. 
In the Sycones they form a ring in the walls of the pores, and 
are distributed in bunches irregularly over the surface of the 
leucones. The sensory nerves are long and fusiform, and 
arranged at right angles to the surface. They are also said to 
be mesodermal, and do not appear as modifications of the 
ectoderm, a conclusion which differs with the sensory element in 
other groups. 
Answers to Queries. 
317,—Styrax,—Mr. A. C. Cole thinks styrax is a perfect substi- 
tute for balsam and is easier to work with. It will probably be 
found that diatoms mounted in gum styrax or storax are less 
liable to accidents than balsam mounts, as the latter become 
resinous in time, and the cowers are liable to spring, the result of 
which is the appearance of prismatic colours in the balsam. I 
believe styrax may be regarded as absolutely permanent and unal- 
terable. Purified styrax contains a granular substance, which 
must be removed by dissolving it in chloroform and filtering the 
Vot, III. 4—4 
