14S 



NA JURE 



\771nc 17, 1S80 



The species may be known as Craspedacusta 

 SowERBH, nov. gen. ct sp. — I name the species in honour 

 of Mr. Sowerby, who discovered it, and to whose quick 

 observation and courteous kindness zoologists are indebted 

 for the knowledge of this interesting animal. 



The sole character which I can give as specific over 

 and above the generic characters summarised above is 

 that of size. The diameter of the disk does not exceed 

 one-third of an inch. 



Locality. — The water-lily tank in the gardens of the 

 Botanical Society, Regent's Park, London. 



\'cry abundant during June, 1S80. Probably introduced 

 from the West Indies. E. Ray Lankester 



NOTES FROM JAVA 



THE following extracts from a letter written from Java 

 by iMr. Henry O. Forbes to i\Ir. H. N. Moseley, 

 F. R.S., have been sent to us for publication as of consi- 

 derable interest. The letter is dated March 19. Mr. 

 Forbes, who has been engaged in collecting in Java, 

 expects shortly to leave for Celebes, Timor, Timor-laut, 

 and other eastern islands. Timor-laut is the most im- 

 portant island of the Malay Archipelago yet remaining to 

 be explored, and is likely to yield many natjral history 

 treasures. Mr. Forbes's letter refers to certain passages in 

 IMr. Moseley's "Notes by a Naturalist on the Cliallengt-r" 

 The question of the mode of growth of Myrmecodia 

 and Hydroph)'timi has been lately before the Linnean 

 .Society. 



" With regard to birds carrying seeds from one island 

 to another, I have observed on the Cocos Keeling Islands 

 (South Indian Ocean) a species of heron which nested 

 in a high tree (species unknown) there, quite co\'ered with 

 its olslong hooked seeds. I was informed by the pro- 

 lirietor of the island that many of these birds, from their 

 feathers getting so thickly covered with the seeds, actually 

 die. I can therefore imagine that many of these seeds 

 might adhere for even weeks and niontlis, and so get 

 transported to very distant regions. 



"At p. 493 you note the habit of hot- water drinking. It 

 is quite a custom among, at any rate, the Sudanese, 

 among whom I have been living some time, who, in the 

 afternoons, invite each other to come and have a cup of 

 hot water. It is drunk either plain or with a little arenga 

 sugar. 



" I have found here a large quantity of alga growing in 

 the hot springs at a temperature of 132^ F. What the 

 species are or is I have not yet ascertained. 



" With reference to Myrmecodia and Hydnophytum, I 

 find some difficulty in reconciling in all cases the state- 

 ment (p. 389) that ' the ants gnaw at the base of the 

 stem, and the irritation produced causes the stem to 

 swell,' with what I have myself observed. I have grown 

 many young seedlings, some of which were entirely unmo- 

 lested by ants, and yet produced a bulbous swelling at the 

 base ; others were certainly scratched, but that was all, 

 by the ants, the smallest scar being visible. On opening 

 many of those which were unmolested I observed a 

 degenerated, soft, spongy portion, not in connection with 

 the exterior'. May not this spot increase till an external 

 opening is formed, and the ants have an entrance made 

 for them to carry out, as I ha\-e seen them doing, the soft 

 spongy substance inside ? 1 have seen other seedlings 

 tliaL had a small orifice close to the rootlet, leading into 

 an interior oval or round expansion in the bulb, and 

 though I closely observed them I failed to detect ants 

 touching them. All these seedlings I grew from the seed 

 till they reached at most a couple or three inches or a 

 little more, when they generally became the home of some 

 ants. After they had become infested I did not pursue 

 observations on them, as my time was much occupied, 

 and because the object of my observation was to discover 

 if they bulbed, &c., without th.e aid of ants. I should 



much like to see these plants grow with all ant life 

 removed from them entirely. If opportunity again offers 

 I shall continue my experiments. I have repeatedly 

 noticed on large Myrmecodia and Hydnophyta which 

 were crowded with ants (on both genera I have found 

 only one species of ant) that in many places irregularly- 

 shaped areas of degeneration existed quite cut off from 

 communication with the wonderful series of galleries and 

 chambers which form this ant-hive. These were found 

 oftenest near the upper portion of the bulb, and towards 

 which excavations were being directed. I have not 

 observed that the surface of the rounded mass gives off 

 any twigs bearing leaves or flowers. All my specimens 

 have had the shape of a bulb more or less gobose, or 

 elongate, prickly, tenanted by ants, giving origin to a 

 much thinner stem, not, or rarely, cliambered nor pas- 

 saged, but also armed, and from which the leaves and 

 sessile flowers proceeded, the latter from hollows in 

 which numerous ants were constantly moving about. The 

 Hydnophyta generally give off at once leaves at the 

 summit of a more or less irregular bulb. 



" 1 have seen the same species of ant inhabiting the 

 swollen-up hollow leaves of a species of Hoya or yEschy- 

 nanthus. The plant I saw had many of its leaves in this 

 condition. I gathered it one day while on the march, 

 and I fear it is lost. It ?iiay have been sent to the British 

 Aluseum, but I am not certain. I have not met with 

 another instance. There was a small hole in the apex 

 of the leaf, and through it the ants came and went. The 

 leaf looked as if all the mesophyllum had been cleared 

 out and the epidermis blown out into a bladder. This 

 observation may not be quite accurate as to the description 

 of leaf, but I noted that the species of ant was the same. 



" Here it is quite impossible to obtain a perfect rhino- 

 ceros skull, unless one has the good fortune to shoot it 

 oneself, for the horn is so highly prized that it alone 

 fetches from 200 to 300 rupees (Dutch guelders), being 

 eagerly bought by the Chinese. It is believed in by all 

 the natives as a sure and certain antidote for snake-bites 

 and for purifying water. A respectable hadji affirmed to 

 me with the persistency of belief that on his way to Mecca 

 — he went in a native vessel — the stock of fresh water on 

 board ran out, and that all on the vessel, by drinking 

 sea-water out of a rhinoceros horn, found it to be- not 

 salt water ! " 



ON THE FERTILISATION OF COB^A 

 PENDULIFLORA {HOOK. FIL.) 

 nOBALA PENDULIFLORA is a graceful climber, 

 ^ growing rather sparingly in our mountain-forests. It 

 was described and figured by Karsten under the name of 

 Roscnbcrgia pcndulijlora (" Flora • Columbia:," 1. 27, 

 t. ix.), and afterwards in the Bot. Mai^., i. 5757. Karsten's 

 plate is very pretty, but in all the specimens I have seen 

 the linear lobes of the corolla were never so red as he 

 paints them, nor do the stamens ever hang straight down- 

 wards parallel to the style, as his figure shows. The plate 

 in the Botanical Magazine has only one defect, the artist 

 having overlooked the booklets and the ends of the 

 tendrils. 



The plant grows exceedingly quickly when kept in shade. 

 A specimen now in m>- garden was raised from seed sown 

 October 3, 1S79, which sprang up a fortnight later, and 

 covered, in less than three months, a wall twelve feet 

 high and ten feet long. It climbs exactly in the same 

 manner as Cubaa scandens, described by Darwin in his 

 " Climbing Plants." The flowers have very little to attract 

 attention, their colour being dull green, with very little 

 red on the filaments, and there is no smell. Though not 

 of great horticultural interest, the plant fully deserves the 

 attention of the botanist on account of the peculiar cir- 

 cumstances under which the flowers are fertilised. Sir J. 

 D. Hooker has made already some pertinent remarks on 



