456 THE ZOOLOGIST. 



the external surface, there being a hilar area, a hilar scar, and a 

 capitulum corresponding to the micropylar caruncle of such 

 seeds as those of the castor-oil plant (Ricinus communis). "* The 

 eggs of Phyllium crurifolium are a case in point. Henneguy 

 states " that a prominent lozenge on the egg represents the 

 surface by which the achene of an umbelliferous plant is united 

 to the column, and that the micropyles are placed on this lozenge. 

 As regards the egg-capsule, the same writer observes : — " Almost 

 every botanist, on examining for the first time a section of this 

 capsule, would declare that he is looking at a vegetable pre- 

 paration."! 



In Plant-life the same suggestions occur. The bladderworts 

 (Utricularice) are carnivorous, and capture small crustaceans, 

 larvae of gnats, &c, by the aid of small bladders with orifices 

 closed in each case by a valve, which permits objects to penetrate 

 into the cavity of the bladder, but not to issue out of it. " The 

 bladders of Utricularice, living in still water, look delusively like 

 certain Ostracoda, especially species of the genus Daphnia. The 

 bladder itself resembles the shell-covered body in size and form, 

 and the bristles the antennae and swimmerets of one of these 

 crustaceans."! Small crustaceans are probably thus allured to 

 their own destruction, and the bladderworts exhibit " aggressive 

 mimicry." In the ' Botanical Gazette ' for April, 1896, an in- 

 teresting case ascribed to mimicry is described. The seeds of 

 the "Philippine Island bean, from the coast near Manila, so 

 closely resemble the quartz pebbles among which they fall, in 

 shape, size, colour, lustre, hardness, and stratification, as to be in- 

 distinguishable from them except by a very close examination." § 



Sometimes we read accounts of assimilative colouration, where 

 it is difficult to see the raison d'etre, if mimicry is propounded. 

 Such an instance is given by Mr. Nicholas Pike : — " On my first 

 visit to Round Island " (near Mauritius), "I captured a Scorpion 

 of a bright green, just the colour of the leaves of the Jubcea palm 

 it was disporting on. The creature was very active and defiant, 

 and it was with difficulty I caught him."|| 



* In « Zool. Results of Arthur Willey Exped.' pt. i. p. 78. 

 f 'Cambridge Nat. Hist.' vol. v. p. 271. 

 I Kerner and Oliver, ■ Nat. Hist. Plants,' vol. i. p. 122. 

 § ' Nature,' vol. liv. p. 106. 

 || ' Sub-Tropical Rambles,' p. 162. 



