Feb. 16, 1871 | 

NATURE 
319 

the flock, of which this present specimen was one, appeared on 
Braunton Burrows, near Barnstaple, on that day last year; the flock 
consisted of eight, and was first observed in a field near Croyde, 
where two were killed and one wounded. The remainder of the 
flock then alighted. Some boys, who were sliding close to Braun- 
ton, pelted them with stones, upon which the birds flew off, 
and were not heard of for some days ; subsequently, I heard they 
were seen at Halsworthy, in the west of Devon, not very far from 
the border of Cornwall, but none were obtained there. In Devon 
they were considered to be wild turkeys, and the following para- | 
graph appeared in the Worth Devon Journal :—‘‘ Wild fowl.— 
During Christmas week a flock of eight wild turkeys visited this 
parish, and alighted in a field at Croyde. They were seen by 
Mr. William Nuich, who followed and shot one which weighed 
glb., and was much admired. The others took their flight to 
the west, and have not since made their appearance.” This mi- 
gration of the Great Bustards was not confined to Devon alone, 
for in the February number of the Zoologist, specimens are re- 
ported from Middlesex, Northumberland, Wiltshire, and Somer- 
setshire. The Somersetshire specimen is of course the most in- 
teresting to us: it was seen by Mr. Harting on the 27th of Sep- 
tember, when journeying by rail from Bishops Lydiard to Wells 
in the low marsh country near Shapwick. His attention was 
first attracted by seeing a bird crouch at the approach of 
the train. He kept his eyes on the bird until the distance was 
considerably decreased, when the bird jumped up and ran swiftly 
away, exhibiting to his astonishment the long legs and white 
flanks of a bustard. Mr. Harting subsequently published an 
account of his interview with this bustard in the Fed. He 
seems to have no doubt himself that the bird he saw was a bus- 
tard, and as he seems to have had sufficient opportunity to 
identify it, we must therefore take it that this Shapwick bustard 
was the pioneer of the December migrants, and that we have to 
thank Mr. Harting for this important addition to our Somerset- 
shire avi-fauna. Although this migration has refreshed our 
memory of the Great Bustard for a time, I am afraid we must in 
England look upon it as a bird of the past, certainly as a resi- 
dent, one or two migratory appearances like the present may no 
doubt from time to time stir up the ornithological world, and 
cause a temporary excitement ; but that a bird of such consider- 
able size and conspicuous plumage should for any time continue 
to exist in such a highly cultivated and thickly inhabited country 
as England seems impossible. Should it do so in any consider- 
able numbers we should very soon have an outcry from some of 
our farmers, as it is addicted to feeding upon corn, both when 
green and ripe, and is moreover especially fond of turnip greens. 
No doubt in more ways than one the present system of high 
farming and the amount of machinery used is most fatal to the 
Great Bustard as a resident, and we must soon look upon him as 
having his memory perpetuated like the Druid,* only as the sign 
of a public house, and being classed by some future Mr. Weller 
with a ‘‘ griffin, a unicorn, or a King’s Arms, as is well known to 
be a collection of fabulous animals.” 
PHILADELPHIA 
Academy of Natural Sciences, Nov. 8.—Mr. Thomas 
Meehan referred to a potato presented to the Academy some 
months ago by Mr. Henszey, a member, which had the appear- 
ance of one potato growing out of the centre of another. The 
opinion of all who saw it was that it was really a case of this 
kind. It had been handed to him by the curators, and on dis- 
section, though no exact place of origin could be traced, there 
seemed nothing to indicate any other theory of origin than that 
one potato had really grown out of the centre of the other. But 
there were serious physiological reasons in the way of such a 
theory. A potato tuber is really but a thickened axis, in which 
the greater part of the interior structure would be incapable of 
developing a bud which would produce a tuber such as this one 
had done. The origin of a new tuber from an old one would be 
nearer the old one’s surface. He had been looking for some 
further explanatory facts, and believed he had them here this 
evening, in the potato tubers he now handed to the members. 
They were about the size of hen’s eggs, and were pierced in every 
direction by stolons of the common couch grass, 77itlicum repens. 
They had gone completely through, as if they were so much wire, 
and in one instance two tubers had become strung together by 
the same stolon, as if they were two beads on a string. One 
would suppose that the apex of the stolon, when it came in con- 
* The Druid and the Bustard are both the signs of public-houses on Salis- 
bury Plain. 

tact with the hard surface of the tuber, would tum aside and 
rather follow the softer line of the earth ; but there was no ap- 
pearance of any inclination to depart from their direct course. 
They had gone apparently straight through. He had no doubt 
the potato before referred to was a similar case, a potato stolon 
had penetrated another potato, and instead of going through as 
these grass spears had done, terminated in the centre, and formed 
the new potato there. It was worthy of thought whether so 
much attention had been given to this direct force in plants as 
the subject deserved. It was well known that a mushroom would 
lift a paving-stone many times its own weight, rather than turn 
over and grow sideways, which it would appear so much easier 
for it to do ; and tree roots growing against walls would throw 
immensely strong ones over, though one would think the pressure 
against the softer soil would give room for their development, 
without the necessity of their expending so much force against 
the wall. 
November 15.—Dr. Ruschenberger, President, in the chair. 
Prof. Leidy directed attention to some fossil bones which had 
been submitted to his examination by Prof. J. D, Whitney. 
According to the accompanying label, they were found under 
Table Mountain, near Shaw Flat, Tuolumne Co., California. 
The bones are friable, and have attached portions of a light ash 
coloured gravel. Several masses of the latter substance accom- 
panying the bones, contain casts of some fruit. Prof. Leidy 
further directed attention to a fossil fragment of the lower part of 
a small pachyderm, which Prof. Hayden had obtained from 
Henry’s Fork of Green River, Wyoming. The specimen con- 
tained the fourth, the sixth, and the seventh molars. The teeth 
resemble in form and constitution those of the Lophiotheriune 
cervulum, a small pachyderm, described by Prof. Gervais, from 
an Eocene formation of France. The crowns of the fourth to the 
sixth molars have four lobes ; that of the seventh molar has an 
additional lobe. The crescentic summit of the postero-external 
lobe joins, by its anterior horn, the antero-internal lobe. A pro- 
portionately well developed basal ridge embraces the crowns, 
except internally, where it is entirely absent. The series of the 
back four molars occupies a space of 16 lines, The last molar 
is 5% lines fore and aft. The base of the jaw is nearly straight 
the length of the fragment, which is an inch and a half. ‘The 
depth of the jaw below the fifth molar is about an inch. The 
species may be named Lophiotherium sylvaticum. 
November 29. —Dr. Ruschenberger, President, in the chair. 
On “Bud Varieties,” by Thomas Meehan.—A few years ago 
Mr. Isaac Burk called my attention to a form of Rubus villosus, 
L., in which the terminal leaflet was very large, cordate, and on 
very long petioles. It is a very striking variety, the leaflets 
appearing at first glance like large linden leaves. On the 
idea that varieties originated from one common centre, it is 
not easy to account for the existence of the same forms 
so many miles apart, as we find in the above, except by 
the accidental carrying of seeds. But I have reason to believe 
that seeds of Rubus rarely germinate in a wild state. In ex- 
periments which I have made in raising the seeds artificially, 
none of the seedlings come exactly like the parent. There is a 
certain general resemblance, but some distinction, more or less, 
can be traced in each individual. But, in native places, one 
exact form will be found to occupy extensive tracts. Sometimes 
several forms will be together, but onlya very few. If the seeds 
made plants readily, there would be innumerable forms, instead 
of the very few we see. I found, in my experiments, that it took a 
long time for a blackberry seed to germinate ; sometimes a whole 
year. Such seedlings have a poor chance to vegetate in a state 
of nature. Other more rapidly-growing vegetation would crowd 
it out, The only distributing agency I can think of is that of 
birds, ButI find no birds eat blackberry seeds ; and, if they did, 
when we consider that of the millions of seeds which fall about 
the place of their origin, few, if any, grow; the chance of those 
growing which birds may carry, even if there be some to eat 
them, which I have failed to find, is extremely small. Hence, 
we find great difficulty in believing that identical forms of Rubus, 
widely separated, can have originated from a common centre. Itis 
well-known that fruits, after being grown for some time in one 
locality, will change their characters to such an extent that a person 
acquainted with one will fail to recognise it elsewhere, and all this 
without the intervention of any seminal power. Thus, the nectarine 
is believed to be a bud evolution from the peach ; the Penn apple 
is a similar creation from Baldwin, and the Reading from the 
common Isabella grape. Though apparently originating in this 
way from external or local causes, the characters peculiar in this 
