244 



SCIENCE- G OSSIP. 



Japanese Waltzing Mice. — The phenomenon 

 of " waltzing," which is best seen if a circular 

 object be placed in the cage for the mice to waltz 

 round, is due either to an operation on the semi- 

 circular canal in the brain or a disease of the 

 same organ. Professor Gotch does not believe 

 that the waltzing mice are a species to them- 

 selves. — J. M. Cobbett, Woburn Chase, Addlestone, 

 Surrey. 



Japanese Waltzing Mice. — In answer to Mr. 

 W. J. Pinckney's inquiry as to the reason for the 

 curious habit that Japanese waltzing mice possess 

 of spinning round and round like tops, I would 

 suggest a theory which I have found after many 

 years of personal observation of these curious 

 rodents. I noticed that by keeping them in a 

 comparatively large space, in fact on a table of 

 about a square yard, with a zinc border all round 

 to prevent the mice falling off, they gradually began 

 to spin less and less. When I purchased them 

 they used scarcely to run about, but kept on spin- 

 ning frantically. After six or seven months they 

 ran about just like other mice, only occasionally 

 interrupting their com-se by one swing round. At 

 the end of this period, having to travel during a 

 few months and not being able to allow the mice 

 much space, I placed them in a very small cage, 

 and had the pleasure of seeing them soon reacquire 

 their characteristic spinning motion. During the 

 following yeai's I kept successively three or four 

 pairs of these mice, and invariably observed that 

 they had a tendency to lose their habit of waltz- 

 ing if allowed a certain space, but soon reacquired 

 it when this was diminished. I also learned from 

 a friend who had been to Japan that these mice 

 are kept in great numbers as pets in that country, 

 but always in very small cages, and thus con- 

 cluded that the spinning has been acquired by 

 dint of habit from generation after generation 

 alwavs having to turn round and round in a small 

 space to take exercise. A certain proof that the 

 habit is not natural is, as already stated, that it 

 has a strong tendency to being lost when the con- 

 ditions of the mice are more similar to their 

 natural one. Another curious fact, which I have 

 never been able to explain, is that the Japanese 

 waltzing mice never attempt to climb the bars of 

 their cage, and, if put there, exhibit great signs of 

 fear, and come down step by step, whilst other 

 species would jump down with one leap. The 

 power of procreation seems -much diminished in 

 this species. — Roger Verity, 1 Via Leone Decimo, 

 Florence, Italy. 



Patent Office Library. — We have had the 

 pleasure of inspecting the new library of the 

 British Patent Office., which will, it is expected, be 

 open to the public about the middle of this month. 

 The main reading-room is very lofty and well 

 ventilated. Its total dimensions are 150 feet long' 

 by 60 feet wide. There are two galleries, each 

 divided, as is the space beneath them, into ten 

 bays. A table occupies each bay, 10 feet long by 

 4 feet wide ; so with those on the ground floor 

 ample seating room is provided for readers. A 

 thorough reclassification of subjects in the books 

 has taken place, and all books and periodicals are 

 available for readers, who need only take them 

 down for reference. The files of scientific periodical 

 and other literature are very complete, and the 

 library contains most works of reference. It is 

 open every weekday until ten o'clock at night. 



CONDUCTED BY JAMES SAUNDERS, A.L.S. 



Achillea Millefolium, Yar. — The pink- 

 flowered variety of the common yarrow is quite 

 abundant, especially in meadows on the south side, 

 near Chesham in Buckinghamshire. Last autumn 

 many of the flowers were very deep in tint. 



Dispersion of Seeds. — So much stress is laid 

 upon methods of dispersal adopted by seeds and 

 fruits that it is interesting to come across an 

 occasion when they are retained at home. This 

 seems to be the case with ragwort (Senecio 

 jacobaea). When its pappus-crowned fruits are 

 ripe, if damp or wet weather prevails, the pappus 

 hairs do not recover their lightness ; but, in a 

 moistened clinging mass of down, fall from each 

 flower head, breaking off from the fruit, which 

 remain in their places. Upon the return of dry 

 weather the fruit drop to the ground at the 

 slightest touch, and are scattered close around the 

 parent plant to await -the next season of growth. 

 This is a provision seemingly more in keeping with 

 an annual type of plant, and hardly to be expected 

 from ragwort, which is a perennial. If more 

 attention were directed to designs insuring plant 

 families growing in the same spot year after year, 

 especially among annuals, I do not doubt that 

 many examples would be found of special con- 

 trivances. There is no reason why a suitable 

 locality should be forsaken on the vague chance of 

 obtaining a better. With a tree shading the 

 ground and impoverishing the soil the matter, is 

 different, but I believe many of our short-lived 

 ' smaller plants are quite content for their children 

 to stay at home. — R. R. Hutchinson, 28 Princes 

 Street, Tunbridge Wells. 



STRUCTUKAL and PHYSIOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



CONDUCTED BY HAROLD A. HAIG. 



Resin-canals and their Significance. — We 

 find existing in some plants a system of channels 

 for the purpose of the conduction of certain bye- 

 products of metabolism that are either of a pro- 

 tective nature or else form valuable storage material 

 to be used up in processes of nutrition. Such are 

 the laticiferous systems of the Euphorbiaceae and 

 the resin- and gum-resin canals of Gymnospernis 

 and Umbelliferae. It is only the two latter that 

 we shall here consider. In the stems of certain 

 members of the Umbelliferae (Aethusa cynapiiun) 

 we may see, on examining transverse sections, 

 a series of large circular spaces lying just outside 

 the hard bast, one to each of the primary or 

 secondary fibro- vascular bundles. With fairly high 

 magnification, each one of these spaces is seen to 

 be lined internally by a layer of thin-walled 

 parenchyma, the protoplasm of which is granular 

 and possessing a large nucleus (see lower fig.). The 

 spaces are, we find on taking longitudinal sections, 

 sections across the gum- resin canals which the 

 plant possesses in its cortex, and at certain points 

 of our longitudinal section of the canal are to be 



