GENERAL NOTES. J I 



GENERAL NOTES. 



Effects of Thunder on Milk. — A thunder-storm is generally 

 believed to he a bad thing for a dairy. An Italian savant, Professor 

 G. Tolomei, has made some experiments on the relation of electricity to 

 the souring of milk. He found, according to The Boston Medical and 

 Surgical Journal, that the passage of an electric current directly 

 through the milk not only did not hasten, but actually delayed 

 acidulation ; milk so treated not becoming sour until from the sixth 

 to the ninth day, whereas milk not so electrified became markedly 

 acid on the third day. When, however, the surface of a quantity of 

 milk was brought close under the two balls of a Holtz machine, the 

 milk soon became sour, and this effect he attributes to the ozone 

 generated. — (" Science.") 



Escallonia Macrantha and Bees. — This plant is very extensively 

 grown about Dunedin both as an ornamental shrub and as a hedge-row 

 plant in gardens. This season it has flowered profusely and has been 

 visited by swarms both of humble- and honey-bees. These insects, 

 however, appear seldom to visit the flowers in a legitimate manner, 

 and consequently it almost never matures its ovary with us. The five 

 red petals have long parallel claws standing edge to edge, and in very 

 close contact except near the base where they are sufficiently separated 

 to leave a narrow cleft. The bee lights on the side of the flower with 

 its head directed towards the base of the calyx, and thrusting its 

 proboscis between the petals, sips out the abundant nectar without 

 ever touching either stigma or anthers. ' Bees appear to be so apt to 

 learn dodges from one another, that all those in one neighbourhood may 

 apparently acquire a habit which is not known elsewhere. It would be 

 interesting, therefore, to learn whether the above mode of extracting 

 the nectar from Escallonia flowers is universal, or whether it is only 

 local.— G. M. T. 



Fertilisation of Native Flowers by Honey-bees. — Out of the 

 large number of plants indigenous to these islands, it is surprising how 

 few of them are visited by hive-bees. I have kept a record for a long 

 time past of all the flowers on which I have seen bees, and have also 

 received from the members of the Otago Beekeepers' Association a 

 list — accompanied by specimens — of the plants on which they have 

 observed bees. The following is a tolerably complete list of those from 

 which honey is collected in the neighbourhood of Dunedin : — 



Clematis indivisa (probably for pollen only) ; White Mapau — 

 Pittosporwm eugenioides ; Black Mapau — Pittosporum tenuifolium ; 

 Mako-mako — Aristotelia racemosa ; Hina-hina — -Melicytus ramiflorus ; 

 Fuchsia excorticata ; Lawyer — Rubus australis ; Kowhai — Sophora 

 tetraptera ; Manuka — Leptospermum scopariwm ; Celmisia coriacea ; 

 Myrtles — both Myrtus obcordata and M. pedunculata ; Convolvulus 

 tuguriorum (for pollen only) ; Veronica traversii and Veronica sali- 

 cornioides. I shall be glad to have records of any others. — G. M. T. 



On the Preservation of Solution of Sulphuretted Hydrogen. 

 — On the 15th November last, I published in the ''Chemical News" a 

 note on the use of glycerin in preserving sulphuretted hydrogen in 



