26 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



this valley. Outliers of Woolwich and Reading 

 beds are left in places on the flanks of the valley. 

 The only erratics I have found here were pale- 

 coloured grits or quartzites more like the grey- 

 wethers of the south than the quartzites of the 

 northern drift. I should also like to ask whether 

 the deposit of boulder-clay, near Bricket Wood, 

 contains erratics from the Nuneaton district, or 

 whether they have not come from a north-east 

 direction ? I have seen it mentioned that beds of 

 manganese ore occur in the Bure Valley in Norfolk. 

 — N. E. Mclntire, 6, Linden Road, Bedford. 



Abnormal Oranges. — I see that you have some 

 notes and an inquiry with regard to what your 

 correspondent thinks to be an abnormal form of 

 orange. (Vol. iii., pp. 307, 341.) This can 

 scarcely now be termed a sport, as it is grown 

 by the million in California, and has been a 

 common form on all the markets of this country 

 for years under the name of " navel " orange, so 

 termed from the resemblance of the end to the 

 umbilicus. I do not know the method of its pro- 

 duction, but it is an example of a successful effort 

 to produce a seedless fruit. The fruit-growers of 

 California claim that they will be able in course of 

 time to produce seedless grapes and other things. 

 That State is, [ believe, the only place where this 

 orange is grown, though it first made an appearance 

 at Florida, but the frost of a few years ago un- 

 fortunately did so much damage to this variety of 

 orange-trees that there has been very little fruit 

 from that State since. I think I saw a paragraph 

 in the papers some time back saying that grafts of 

 this orange had been introduced in Europe. The 

 fruit is a very fine one. I have seen specimens on the 

 market here fully eight inches in diameter, and I 

 am somewhat surprised that it is still looked on as 

 a curiosity in England. California oranges have 

 much improved in the past few years ; and this 

 winter there were sent to market quite a number 

 of cases of blood-oranges finer than those imported 

 from the Mediterranean. — H. E. Smith, Chicago; 

 April 29th, 1897. 



Selborne Society Field Club. — The first 

 summer gathering of the Croydon Selborne Society 

 took place on Saturday, May 8th, when the 

 members met for an afternoon ramble at Sander- 

 stead station. The route taken was by Sanderstead 

 Church, along the Upper Warlingham Road, and 

 across the fields to Riddlesdown and Kenley. The 

 weather was all that could be desired. Many 

 spring flowers were found to be still in blossom, 

 the lesser celandine (Ranunculus ficaria) being still 

 met with, whilst primroses {Primula, vulgaris) were 

 very plentiful. Wild hyacinths (Agraphis nutans) 

 were at their best, a few white specimens being 

 found. A few early bugles (Ajuga reptans) were in 

 blossom, but 'the arum (Arum maculatum) had 

 not yet opened their spadix or hood. The creepers 

 have not yet reached the hedges, but the discovery 

 of the early purple orchis (Orchis mascula) rewarded 

 some of the party. Portuguese laurel and holly 

 were in blossom, but the hawthorn was not yet 

 out. Nightingales were repeatedly heard singing, 

 as well as our spring visitors, the cuckoos. A few 

 partridges were seen. Entomologists bottled water- 

 fleas and the pupae of gnats, which exist in a 

 wingless stage beneath the water. On Riddlesdown 

 fossil sponge-remains (Ventriculites) were found in 

 flints, and growing amongst the grass were seen 

 early specimens of milkwort, both blue and white 

 IPolygala vulgaris). The members of the Lambeth 

 Field Club joined the society on this occasion. — 

 Edward A. Martin, Hon. Sec. 



Royal Meteorological Society. — The 

 monthly meeting of this Society was held on 

 Wednesday afternoon, the 19th inst., at the rooms 

 of the Royal Astronomical Society, Burlington 

 House, Mr. E. Mawley, F.R.H.S. President, in the 

 chair. Mr. F. Gaster, of the Meteorological 

 Office, read a paper, by himself and Mr. R. H. 

 Scott, F.R.S., on " The Mean Monthly Tempera- 

 tures of the British Isles." The authors dealt with 

 the means of the daily minimum, average and 

 maximum temperatures for the various months of 

 the year in the twenty-five years of 1871-1895. 

 They pointed out that there is a great difference 

 between the amount of range of temperature at 

 the coast stations and that recorded inland. The 

 range between January and July amounts to about 

 sixteen degrees at coast stations, but to more 

 than twenty-three degrees at the inland stations. 

 The contrast between the temperature of the air at 

 inland and at coast stations at different times of 

 the year is due to the following causes : (1) the 

 constant tendency of the sun to heat the surface of 

 the earth ; (2) the equally constant tendency of the 

 earth to radiate its heat into space — both of these 

 being modified greatly by the aqueous vapour and 

 the clouds suspended in the atmosphere ; (3) the 

 fact that the solid portions of the earth absorb 

 and reflect heat much more rapidly than the 

 water ; and (4) that while the ocean to the west- 

 ward is of enormous size and great depth, the sea 

 to the eastward is, comparatively speaking, limited 

 in area and shallow, and separates the eastern 

 shores of the British Islands from those of conti- 

 nental Europe by a small distance. A paper by 

 Mr. C. V. Bellamy on " The Rainfall of Dominica, 

 West Indies," was also read. The author gave an 

 interesting account of the climate of the island, 

 and then discussed the monthly returns of rainfall 

 from twenty-seven stations during the four years 

 1893-6. The rainy season extends from July to 

 November, the other months representing the dry 

 season. The month of November, 1896, was the 

 wettest on record. 



South London Entomological and Natural 

 History Society. — April 8th, 1897. Mr. R. Adkin, 

 F.E.S., President, in the Chair. Mr. South 

 exhibited the following Geometrida; from Europe 

 and Eastern Asia. Eustroma reticulata and var. cerosa, 

 the latter larger and more golden yellow than the 

 type ; Cidaria silacea-ta, Chinese specimens, both 

 larger and smaller than European ; C. corylata. 

 Eastern examples, very similar ; C. picata, some 

 Chinese specimens, larger and more yellow ; Mela- 

 nippe procellata, some were larger than European 

 and some with ground-colour suffused with a fuli- 

 ginous shade. Mr. Lucas, specimens of an exotic 

 earwig, Amisolabis annulipes, which could be distin- 

 guished from British species by two white joints 

 near the tip of the antennae ; the distinctly ringed 

 femora gives it its specific name; it was found in 

 1894, at Tavistock, but the specimens exhibited 

 came from Surrey. Mr. Adkin, a fine series of red 

 forms of Ttzniocampa gracilis from the New Forest 



