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5CIENCE GOSSIP 





The Board of Agriculture continues to issue illus- 

 trated leaflets for the guidance of farmers and fruit- 

 growers. One of the more recent is upon the pear 

 and cherry sawfly, giving particulars of its life- 

 history, depredations, and methods of prevention and 

 remedies. 



At the annual meeting on February 21st of the 

 subscribers to the Millport Marine Biological Station 

 z. satisfactory condition of affairs was reported. The 

 station is now in a position to supply zoological 

 laboratories and private students with material for 

 investigation. 



We have received from Messrs. Watkins & 

 Doncaster, of 36 Strand, their new priced catalogue 

 of apparatus, books, and other items necessary to 

 field naturalists. It extends to nearly a hundred 

 pages, and is prefaced by a useful index. A list of 

 books is included in this edition. 



Science has been honoured by Her Majesty 

 through Captain William De Wiveleslie Abney, 

 Director of the Science and Art Department, who 

 has been created a K.C.B., and Major-General 

 Edward Robert Festing, Director of the Science 

 Museum, South Kensington, who has been decorated 

 its a C.B. 



Mr. William Trelease has forwarded to us a 

 reprint of a paper read before the Botanical Society 

 -of America upon the classification of botanical pub- 

 lications. It will be found useful to those who have 

 .a number of pamphlets and other printed records, 

 which in every library are a source of anxiety to their 

 possessors. 



We have received from Mr. W. C, Hughes, of 

 Brewster House, 82 Mortimer Road, London, N. , an 

 interesting bundle of circulars, and his recent cata- 

 logue of lanterns and dissolving-view apparatus. 

 There are also lists of new films for ordinary lantern 

 work and animated pictures. Mr. Hughes will 

 supply, on application, these lists to those interested 

 in lantern work. 



Mr. Onslow Ford's marble statue of the late 

 Professor Huxley is to be unveiled in the central hall 

 of the Natural History Museum at Cromwell Road, 

 Kensington, on April 28th. The Prince of Wales 

 will then formally accept in person the memorial on 

 behalf of the trustees of the British Museum. Sir 

 Joseph Hooker will deliver the address on the 

 occasion. 



THE President for the next meeting of the British 

 Association will be Professor Rucker, M.A. , D. Sc. , 

 F. K.S. Dr. Rucker stands in the first rank of 

 physicists. Pie was educated at Clapham Grammar 

 School and Brasenose College, Oxford. Pie was ap- 

 pointed Professor of Mathematics and Physics at the 

 Yorkshire College in 1S74 ; became a Fellow of the 

 University of London, 1890; was Royal Medallist 

 of the Royal Society, 1891 ; Treasurer of the British 

 Association, 189 1 to 1898, and Trustee, 1898. He 

 was President of the Physical Society, 1S93 to '^95> 



and was appointed Secretary of the Royal Society, 

 1896. Professor Rucker is the representative of the 

 Royal Society on the Governing Body of Rugby 

 School, and a member of the Board of Visitors of the 

 Royal Observatory, Greenwich. 



Mr. William E. Hoyle, M.A.. and Miss 

 Clara Nordlinger have done wisely in reprinting 

 from the " Library Association Record'' their paper 

 upon the " Concilium Bibliographicum at Zurich and 

 its Work," as the Institution cannot be too widely 

 known and understood. The reprint is issued for 

 private distribution ; but we do not imagine there 

 would be much difficulty in seeing the copy if ap- 

 plication were made to the authors at the Museum, 

 Owens College, Manchester. 



Bulletin number 22, New Series of the Division 

 of Entomology in the United States Department of 

 Agriculture, is to hand. It contains upwards of one 

 hundred pages of first-class work on economic ento- 

 mology, accompanied by a number of carefully 

 drawn illustrations. A curious record is made by 

 Dr. Blanton of Greenville, Miss., to the effect that a 

 praying mantis, Stagmomantis Carolina, is often found 

 in his apiary feeding upon the bees. They are stated 

 to kill them as ravenously as a cat would mice. 



In Bulletin 22 of the United States Division of 

 Entomology is a report received from Dr. II. M. 

 Smith, of the United States Fish Commission, in 

 which he states that Captain John Baxter, of the 

 United States tender " Haze," had at times sailed 

 through twenty miles of dead may-flies in the middle 

 of Lake Erie. Dr. Smith further reports that he 

 found on the flat top of a gas-buoy a mass of may- 

 flies covering the entire surface full two to four inches 

 thick. 



We have received a reprint of an interesting paper 

 read before the Koninklijke Akademie van Weten- 

 schappen, of Amsterdam, upon a case of an apple 

 within an apple, found by Miss T. Tammes at 

 Groningen. In her paper this lady gives an account 

 of this curious "sport," and a figure of a vertical 

 section showing one complete fruit within another. 

 The lady has evidently examined the previous 

 history of such cases, as she quotes a number of 

 similar instances in other fruits, and Dr. Maxwell T. 

 Masters's experience of other cases. 



Many of our readers will have doubtless been 

 interested in the scientific work accomplished at the 

 Blue Hill Meteorological Observatory, U.S.A., in 

 high altitudes of the atmosphere with the aid of box 

 kites. We understand from Messrs. James Pain & 

 Sons, of 121 Walworth Road, London, S.E., that 

 they have been appointed sole agents in this counlry 

 for these kites. Independently of their scientific value 

 they will be found of much interest in kite-flying, 

 which promises to become a fashionable amusement 

 in Britain. A string of tandem kites was flown on 

 March 3rd, last year, to an altitude of 12,507 feet. 



The ninth annual Report of the Society for the 

 Protection of Birds is to hand. The Society numbers 

 no less than 22,000 members. The balance-sheet 

 appears to be satisfactory, showing upwards of 100/. 

 on the right side. The work of the Society is not 

 confined to these islands, as it has branches in 

 Australia and New Zealand. It is evident from the 

 Report that the Secretary and Organising Committee 

 are active, and we believe that the influence of 

 the Society for the Protection of Birds is for good 

 and very widespread. The London offices are at 

 3 Hanover Square, W. 



