NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 115 
garden, as he throws out his slender tongue with lightning quick- 
ness, taking in the thieving insects which rob us of our delicious 
fruits, we love to speak a word in his defence. From our observa- 
tions, we deduce the following: Toads usually seize those bees 
which fall to the ground; so it is the freighted honey-gatherer, 
which aims amiss for the alighting board, and thus falls to the 
ground, that is entombed in the stomach of his Toadship. So from 
what we have already said, we believe, despite the opinion of some 
of our best apiculturists, that it is the bees in hives high from the 
ground which suffer from his Batrachian majesty.” 
On the subject of breéding in-and-in, Mr. E. Gallup tells us 
that in “ three cases he has known bees to be bred in-and-in with- 
out any cross from other stocks, until they became mere dwarfs, 
and entirely ceased to swarm, or be of any profit to their owner.” 
At the meeting of the German bee keepers at Nuremburg, Dr. 
Pollman exhibited a collection of bees illustrative of their natural 
history. ‘It was composed of two boxes, containing workers, 
queens, and drones of the different kinds of bees, such as black, 
Italian, Greek, Egyptian, etc., and of different parts of the bodies 
of bees, hermaphrodites, insects hostile to bees, scales of wax of 
all sizes, broods, foul broods, combs, &e.” 
NATURAL HISTORY MISCELLANY. 
BOTANY. 
Cummme Fers. —The beautiful Climbing Fern (Lygodium pal- 
matum) exists and flourishes in its wild state within the borders 
of “old Essex.” The writer discovered this rare and attractive 
plant in 1869, while exploring “Lynn Woods” in the vicinity of 
the famous “Penny Bridge.” The locality of its haunt is within 
the limits of Saugus, and not far from that romantic spot known 
as the Pirates’ Glen. Specimens have been obtained having a 
_ Stalk or “vine” nearly four feet in length. As the climbing fern 
is one of the most rare, graceful and attractive plants found in 
this country, it is a matter of satisfaction to know that we have it 
growing in our woodland valleys. This fern has been found, 
though rarely, in Florida, Kentucky and Massachusetts. In Vir- 
ginia it is often seen, and it has been found in several localities 
