HARDWICKE S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



45 



The Royal Microscopical Society. — The 

 December number of this valuable journal contains, 

 in addition to the transactions and proceedings of the 

 society, and a summary of current researches relating 

 to zoology, botany, microscopy, etc., two exceedingly 

 valuable papers, both of which are abundantly and 

 highly artistically illustrated. The first is by Mr. 

 William West, F.L.S., " On the Alga of the English 

 Lake District," dealing with about 5S9 species of 

 desmids, of which sixty-four recently discovered 

 forms are here illustrated. Mr. West has been 

 assisted in the preparation of this paper by his son, 

 Mr. G. S. West, national scholar in biology. Most 

 of these interesting desmids appear to have been 

 gathered from the numerous rock-tarns which occur 

 about Brant Fell, Bowness. The second paper in this 

 journal is by Mr. Frederick Chapman, continuing his 

 careful researches into " Foraminifera of the Gault 

 of Folkestone," and dealing with the sub-family of 

 -Textulariina. Mr. Chapman's paper is illustrated 

 by two plates of exquisitely- drawn fossil Foraminifera 

 of the Gault. 



" Le Diatomiste." — It is with pleasure that we 

 notice the December number of " Le Diatomiste," 

 edited by M. Tempere, of Paris, and containing 

 much valuable matter, chief among which is a clever 

 article on " La culture artificielle de Diatomees," by 

 Dr. Miquel, illustrated by a clearly-executed diagram. 

 This number also contains papers on some new forms 

 of Mastogloia, and on "Quelques Diatomes nou- 

 velles ou peu connues," by Messrs. Cleve and Grove; 

 also two very fine plates of Amphora and Mastogloia, 

 which do great credit. 



ZOOLOGY. 



Sending Zoological Specimens by Post. — 

 After many attempts, I have devised- a simple way of 

 sending small specimens by post, which may not be 

 new, but cannot be very generally known. Take a 

 small square piece of sheet cork, 

 and cut out of it a smaller square 

 piece, leaving abroad margin as here 

 shown. Over one side of this gum 

 (by the edges only) a piece of card- 

 board or paper. When this is firm, 

 put the specimens in the tray thus formed, with a 

 little tissue paper or cotton-wool ; and then gum a 

 similar piece over the other side. The resulting 



Fig. 



package in section is thus : % }?.'■ i§Hj (Fig. 39). I 



have sent many such packages by post, with shells and 

 insects, and in no case has anything been broken. 

 Cork has an advantage over wood in being easily 

 cut ; and its lightness prevents the packets from 

 making the letters overweight. — T. D. A. Cockerel!. 



Colias edusa. — The extreme south-eastern dis- 

 trict of London was, last year, in company wdth most 

 others, favoured with a visit of this beautiful butter- 

 fly. I was not very fortunate in capturing a great 

 number, for I only took about a dozen specimens. 

 Among them were five female Edusa, and one splendid 

 specimen of the rare helice. The last-named I took 

 in a chalk-pit, at Charlton, on August nth, where I 

 met a boy who had captured another of them. The 

 first Edusa that I saw was on May 31st, at the bottom 

 of Greenwich Park. I saw another at Eltham, on 

 4th of June. I did not see any more before August 

 the 8th, when I caught one at Chiselhurst, about 

 seven miles from here. After that they were very 

 common, and, apparently, not particular where they 

 passed their time, being seen alike in back streets 

 and clover-fields. I have not seen any since the 

 3rd of September. Can any one tell me the nearest 

 haunt (to here) of the marbled white ? — Percy Oake- 

 shott. 



BOTANY. 



The Orobanche^e. — In the years 1889 and 1890, 

 my father, Captain Haward, collected a good many 

 specimens of two species of Orobanche, i.e. O. minor 

 and O. elatior, on a large variety of plants. A few 

 notes on these may perhaps prove interesting to some 

 of your readers. Everyone of the fifteen or sixteen 

 examples mentioned below, was found in the parish 

 of Little Blakenham, near Ipswich. Taking O. minor 

 first, this occurred on five plants in the order 

 Leguminosse, viz. Medicago sativa, M. lupitlina, 

 Trifolinm piatense, T. repens, and Onobrychis sativa. 

 It was only found on one plant among the Umbel- 

 lifera, Pastinaca sativa, but it grew on no less than 

 six flowers of the Composite. These were Cardiacs 

 nutans, C. aj-vensis, Picris hieracoides, Crepis virens, 

 Leontodon hirtus, and Anthemis cotnla. O. minor 

 had also attached itself to one Labiate plant, i.e. 

 Nepeta glechoma, and to one grass, Festuca ovina, 

 var. rubra. This species of orobanche is very 

 common in the neighbourhood, generally affixing 

 itself to the root of one of the clovers, or to Crepis 

 virens. I have seen clover-fields quite brown in 

 places from the abundance of O. minor. Of most of 

 the other specimens in this list, only one example 

 was found. Some of them were very small, and 

 seemed to have had a hard struggle for existence, 

 notably that on F. ovina, but the guest of a 

 cotula was 18J in. in height, and that on C. nutans 

 was 24 in. Most of the works on Botany give 

 O. elatior as being parasitic only on Ceniaurea 

 scabiosa, I believe. This is certainly its most usual 

 host-plant, and on scabiosa it grows abundantly round 

 Blakenham, particularly in some of the chalk-pits 

 there. My father, however, discovered it on two 

 other flowers !in the same order, but in each case 



