SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



several broods of this moth being reared in 

 captivity in various parts of the country, about 

 the end of the sixties. It was the custom to keep 

 the larvae warm during the winter, when they 

 were fed on groundsel, and as many as three 

 broods of perfect insects could be reared each 

 year. Many lepidopterists remember the time 

 when the males and the females of this geometer 

 were considered as distinct, and were called 

 respectively Camtogamma fluviata and C. gemmaria. 

 As such they appeared in the late Mr. Stainton's 

 excellent " Manual of British Moths." Rearing 

 them through their various stages cleared up that 

 difficulty, as it has many another.- — John T. 

 Carrington . 



A Botanist's Book-plate. — The accompanying 

 book-plate has been devised by the owner of a 

 large private library, the major portion of 

 which consists of botanical works. The 

 labels are printed from the copper plate 

 in dark-coloured inks corresponding 

 with the main divisions of the library 

 thus floras and works on physio- 

 logical and structural botany 

 have their labels printed in 

 dark green ; volumes on 

 zoological and micro- 

 scopical subjects have 

 their labels printed in 

 dark brown ; theo- 

 logical, dark blue 

 travels, general 

 literature, 

 etc., black. 

 The sub- 

 ject of 

 the plate 

 is the little 

 creeping 

 plant repre- 

 sented on the 

 background behind 

 the panel and mono- 

 gram ; it is the fragrant 

 lowly - growing flower 

 which Linnaeus selected to 

 commemorate his name, the 

 Linnaea borealis, of Gronovius 

 and it was sketched, one-half the 

 natural size, from plants growing in 

 the pine woods of Castle Grant, at 

 Grantown, Morayshire, Scotland. The 

 same plant is adopted as the device of the 

 Linnean Society. We reproduce the plate 

 reduced to three-fourths its size. 



Localities Wanted. — Will readers kindly 

 inform me through Science-Gossip of all specimens 

 of the following trees which are living in the 

 British Isles : (i) the tulip-tree, of which there are 

 trees at Kew Gardens and in Croydon Cemetery ; 

 (2) the maidenhair tree, of which there is a fine 

 one in Kew Gardens, and also, I am told, in the 

 Terrace Gardens at Richmond, Surrey. — E. A. 

 Martin, 69, Bensham Manor Road, Thornton Heath. 



Pied Flycatcher in Yorkshire. — While trout- 

 fishing last week on a stream in the neighbourhood 

 •of Kirby Moorside, in North Yorkshire, I saw a 

 male bird of this elegant species on more than one 

 occasion. From the behaviour of the bird, and the 

 fact that it was always seen about the same spot, I 

 have no doubt that its mate was nesting near, 

 though I made no search for it. The kingfisher 

 was also to be seen speeding its arrow- like flight up 



and down the same stream, a welcome and not too 

 common treat for the eyes of any bird-lover. — 



V. B. Crowther-Beynon, The Grange, Edith Weston, 

 Stamford; May 23rd. 



Tenacity of Life in a Bee. — I received a 

 number of shells of Helix nemoralis from a lady 

 conchologist friend which were collected at Jesson, 

 near Dungeness, at the beginning of last Novem- 

 ber. They came to me at the commencement of 

 January, and about the end of that month I put 

 them all in a glass-topped box. On May 14th among 

 these shells I found a bee feebly crawling about. 

 After feeding it with Demerara sugar and water 

 and with honey, it gradually gained strength. Its 

 long fast weakened it considerably, but on May 

 17th it left the open box and has not appeared 

 since. It has had no food probably since the com- 

 mencement of November, certainly not since 

 the end of January up to May 14th. — 

 (Rev.) R. Ashington Bullen, Loicghrigg, 

 Somers Road, Reigate. 



Baron von Mueller's Corres- 

 pondence. — Botanists throughout 

 the world, but more especially 

 the numerous personal friends 

 of the late Baron Sir Fer- 

 dinand von Mueller, 

 K. C. M. G., F. R. S., 

 Government Botanist 

 of Victoria, will be 

 pleased to hear 

 that his execu- 

 tors, the Rev. 

 W. Potter, 

 Dr. Alex. 

 Buttner 

 and Mr. 

 H. Buttner, 

 are now col- 

 lecting dona - 

 tions for the 

 erecting upon his 

 grave in the St. Kilda 

 cemetery, Melbourne, 

 of a monument worthy of 

 the deceased savant's fame. 

 The monument is of grey 

 granite, twenty - three feet in 

 height, all highly polished, and 

 will stand in the centre of a grave- 

 plot twelve feet square, planted out 

 with choice specimens of the Australian 

 flora, with which the late Baron's name has 

 become imperishably linked. They also will 

 be glad to know that the illustrious phytologist's 

 supplemental volume of the "Flora Australi- 

 ensis," upon which he had worked for years, 

 and was preparing for the press at the time of 

 his death, is to be published, together with two 

 volumes on his administration as Director of the 

 Botanical Gardens, Melbourne, and embracing a 

 biography and complete bibliograph of his writings. 

 The executors will feel favoured by the loan of 

 any of his letters, or the communication of in- 

 cidents in the Baron's life which friends may deem 

 worthy of notice in the biography. Donations and 

 letters should be addressed direct to myself. — Rev. 

 W. Potter, " Vonmueller," Arnold Street, South Yarra, 

 Melbourne, Australia. 



Whales at South Kensington.— The new 

 department for the. Cetacea at the Natural History 

 Museum, Cromwell Road, will shortly be ready for 

 public inspection, and forms an important addition. 



