282 



SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 





Pa?-- 

 S. H 

 the : : r 













f 



-J. can 





- ---i 



"oises 



th; 



-rtr 





:f this 



r, i 



nave 





....-__ 





r 



rar: c: 



eer. 



- - A 



e 



1.-: £."1 



tney are ^t-era 

 each 1 — car.— 

 size, ar.i -.he 

 ce-::;;— ; - i . 



small brown £p: 

 selves on the : 

 skin and the • £ 

 poTchased I z : 

 the vendor, vra; 

 tortoise ! " — J 

 and Field Natu ■ : 



Fossil Ferx at G: 

 r^ard to the fossil fern r 

 (ax/f p. 194) as ha ■-; c 

 Giants' Cause a r. : . 

 what to me see— 5 : : he 

 that it is not a ferr. a: a 

 of a fern. Ie fa:, i: i; - 

 less than dencr'h : :r £.a 

 I have specdmer.; :: ; er 

 IJas), flint ana hne era: 

 having dendri::; — ar ; :r.: 

 resembling ferr. £ I r. : ':. -. 

 Kensington Aru£e:r-. .h 

 with dendritic rr.arh:r.e£ 

 the long firoiia£ a: a :e 

 memory as re:ara£ .a 

 Here in I-e::-;:er hire 

 qnarries the aaarr -.e.a 

 on the smia:e ;: he 

 Giants' Cause a :a. 

 being a fossil :er.a, 

 Musetun the ciran £h.i: 

 is given as o.hae£ :: r.; 

 Geikie's Text-h.h :: 

 chemical com a : £ : : r. ; ; 

 and one of the ;:r.£:i._e: 

 of iron and ir.a..;ar.e£r 

 is the materia, real 

 markings in ar. .: ae 

 If Mr. Barbour ;:a 1 h 

 it could be ceelael 1: 

 instances of these aer.ar 



iraa.s seem to be at 

 :he£ .-hich resemble 

 r e : : e a : 1 .■ affix them- 

 ; -he ar.irion of the 



eral aai-als rvhich I 



-. :hey v.ere ' ■ yonng 

 :. Si:. Hull Scientific 



C av -E . AY.— With 

 r.ea hy Mr. Barbour 

 found b\- him at the 

 eems to have hit on 

 :rae explanation, viz., 

 :: a natural imitation 

 ;h at thing more nor 

 raar la^ £ on the rock. 

 i.aest.ae from Lower 

 at-- £aai£t:ne, all 

 their £ar;a:e5 : some 



eranite) 



ar.arkings 



.It at the 



■fea of it 



figured in the new series of Science-Gossip, vol. i., 

 pp. 267-8-9, illustrating an article upon them by 

 Mr. Carrington. — Thomas Eduards, CUftonville House, 

 Leicester : January 2gth, 1897. 



Inebriety .among Bees. — The "Journal of 

 Botanj- " for last December contains a note by 

 J. D. Williams on the intoxicating effects on bees 

 of certain members of Compositae and Dipsacacae. 

 Reading this recalled an observation of my own 

 when staying in Torquay dtoring the autumn of 

 1S95. The beautiful lime-tree avenues there were 

 a veritable death-trap to many thousands of bees, 

 v.ho sipped " not wisely' but too well " at the 

 bonntifnl supply of nectar provnded, and then fell 

 down inebriate to the road beneath, where they 

 wandered about in a maudlin kind of fashion, a 

 melancholy sight for any bee with a tendency to 

 t emperance work . The maj or part of the abandoned 

 v.ere too gloriously drunk to care what became of 

 them, and simply lay supinely to be crushed out of 

 recognition by the constant traffic, both vehicular 

 and pedestrian. For several weeks the road beneath 

 the lime-trees was literally carpeted with bees in 

 various stages of intoxication, and the death-roll 

 must have been enormous as the avenue v. as an 

 impoirtant connection between Tor and Torquay, 

 and much of the traffic from Torquay Station to the 

 town passed along it. The bees that were fortunate 

 enough to fall on the borders of grass growing along 

 the ade-paths appeared to gradually recover from 

 the toxic effects of the lime-flowers, but whether it 

 was to renew the debauch, or that the one experience 

 enabled them to avoid an\' future e.-i cesses I am 

 unable to say. — George T. Harris, 33, Lindore Road, 

 New Wandsworth. 



KoMENCLATCRE. — I cordiallv agree wdth a late 

 correspondent in his remarks as to the useless- 

 ness if not actual mischievousness of altering 

 old and well-knowtn generic names ; nor can I 

 see that science gains any benefit therefrom or is 

 in any way advanced by the change. As a 

 worker in the Upper Tertiary deposits, and 

 knowing the shells fairly well, I confess I cannot 

 follow much of the new literature. Helix ericetorwji 

 every conchologist knows ; but how many H. iiala 

 (Conchol. Soc. list) ? Zonit^ is a useful name. 

 WiU the species be better understood if it is called 

 Hyalinia. Vitrea, or Helicdla ? Azeca and Zua are 

 well known, and I am glad to see them back again 

 in the list referred to above, after they were turned 

 into Cochlkopa by Jefl&rey. Are we better off 

 because our old fnend Pcduiina becomes Viviparus, 

 or Cyclostoma Pomaiias ; and then Hanmaiuii or 

 Cylichna, Utriculus and other well-defined and 

 well-known groups jammed into one as Bulliiulla, 

 or, again, Cyprina, which the veriest tjTo could not 

 mistaJke if transformed into Arciica? Again, the 

 passion for changing names because a genus in quite 

 another class bears a similar one, or but slightlj' 

 varied, is bound to lead to confusion . I write as much 

 the interest of the newer generation, to whom the 

 older works of LyeU, Woodward, Wood, Beck, 

 and others are becoming practically obsolete, as mj' 

 o%vn. Cheamys may be a very pretty name, and 

 probably a very old one, but surely Pecten 

 is quite as good, and far better known to all 

 collectors and students. The reason, I am told, 

 why these changes should be made is to bring us 

 into line with continental writers. That is all 

 right ; but it seems to me that there are as good 

 men in the United Kingdom as there are on the 

 Continent, and quite as well worth follovving. As 

 r^ards " honouring " the authors by restoring their 



