HARD WICKE'S 



SCIE NCE-GO SSI P. 



179 



lived twenty-two and a half years, until his death in 

 March, 1879. 



Shortly before his death the doctor handed her 

 over to Mr. Sadler, Curator of the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Edinburgh, — " with many earnest and 

 pathetic injunctions relative to the care and treatment 

 of the aged and historical zoophyte." Mr. Sadler died 

 about two years after, and from that time his suc- 

 cessor, Mr. R. Lindsay, carefully tended her up to 

 the 4th of August, 1887, when she died in the same 

 glass jar in which she had lived since 1828, and sur- 

 rounded by fourteen of her grandchildren. Her 

 death appears to have been caused by the destructive 

 fungus, the Sapro legtiia, which has of late years 

 proved so fatal to many of the salmon tribe. During 

 her life-time " Granny " made occasional appearances 

 in public. She was exhibited by Dr. Fleming to his 

 class in the New College, with the caution — " Oculis 

 non manibus." In 1859 she attended the meeting of 

 the British Association at Aberdeen, under the 

 presidency of the late Prince Consort. In 1872 

 Dr. McBain exhibited her at a conversazione of a 

 medical society, and again in 1874 at a meeting of 

 the Edinburgh " Naturalists' Field Club," and for 

 the fifth time at the meeting of the Royal Physical 

 Society in April, 1878, when she formed the subject 

 of an interesting paper by Dr. McBain, which will 

 be found in vol. iv. of the Proceedings. Her 

 "visitors-book," which was kept in the Curator's 

 drawing-room at the Royal Botanic Gardens, contain, 

 the signatures of upwards of one thousand visitors, 

 including Lord High Commissioners, learned pro- 

 fessors, travellers, and others. Allusion has been 

 made to her progeny. She had numerous descen- 

 dants, and well deserved the name bestowed upon 

 her. During the twenty-three years she was in Sir 

 J. G. Dalyell's possession she gave birth to 334 

 young ; in 1857, when with Dr. Fleming, to 240 

 more "in the course of a single night," and Dr. 

 McBain calculates that during the time she was 

 under his guardianship she gave birth to upwards of 

 150 young ones, thus recking a total of 724 young 

 actinia;. At present " on..; of her numerous progeny, 

 born in 1872, and now much larger than ever she 

 was, along with fourteen grandchildren, many of 

 them now larger also, are in the Royal Botanic 

 Gardens, Edinburgh, in very good condition." 



Among her descendants, Sir J. G. Daly ell describes 

 one which had "two mouths of unequal dimensions 

 in the same disc : each mouth fed independently, and 

 the system seemed to derive benefit from either. In 

 three years this monster, which was a fine specimen, 

 displayed tentacles in four rows, not in three, as in 

 normal specimens : the tubercles were twenty-eight, 

 and of a vivid purple. It had produced twenty-eight 

 young, the first when fifteen months old, and it 

 survived within a month of five years. Another 

 form of monstrosity consisted of two bodies united. 

 Four of this kind were produced, and survived ten 



years." These two forms of monstrosity are figured 

 in Sir J. G. Dalyell's work. 



Such is a slight sketch of this famous sea-anemone, 

 interesting from the fact of its having lived so long in 

 confinement in a small vessel, containing about a 

 quart of water ; and the lengthened period during 

 which it has been under careful and scientific in- 

 vestigation. It is much to be desired that other 

 inhabitants of the sea could be treated in the same 

 manner as " Granny." Tracing their life-history 

 through several generations would add greatly to 

 our knowledge, and render valuable assistance in 

 clearing up many of the undecided points in natural 

 history. 



Edw. Simpson. 

 24, Grummaiit Road, Peckham, S.E. 



CURIOSITY SHOWS. 

 By J. B. Beckett, Great Yarmouth. 



"^~\NLY a pen-nay, come and see what yer never 



V_y seed afore ; it's suffen wonderful, an' its alive, 

 all alive ; nun o' your dead an' patched up things, 

 but a real live curiosity." 



Whenever I hear such a cry as this, or any other 

 pertaining to curiosity shows, I make it my duty to 

 invest the " humble brown," and see what the 

 curiosity is. Amply repaid I always am, and my 

 fellow-naturalists would do well to do the same, as 

 very often most interesting natural history objects 

 are brought under one's observation, which otherwise 

 would be passed unnoticed. 



The exhibition generally consists of some freak of 

 nature, monstrosity, or out-of-the-way animal, and 

 to make the affair look more complete, a few stuffed 

 specimens, or other works of nature are sometimes 

 added. Outside the show a little man with a big 

 voice points to an apology for a picture, and an- 

 nounces in rather exaggerated terms, what's to be 

 seen within, all for " wun pen-nay." In these 

 shows scores of curious freaks and monstrosities of 

 nature have been brought to my notice amongst 

 them, for instance, being : — a sheep with six legs ; 

 a pig with two distinct heads, two pairs of eyes, two 

 noses, two mouths, and two gullets ; a goose with an 

 extra leg; a double kitten; a two-headed calf; a 

 three-eyed whiting ; a two-legged dog ; a cat with 

 only one foreleg ; a pig with two bodies and one 

 head ; a kitten with two faces ; a double-headed 

 lamb ; a chicken with four legs ; a mouse with two 

 extra legs on its back ; and others too numerous to 

 enumerate here. 



A collection of exotic snakes, or insects in spirits, 

 go to make the exhibition more interesting, whilst a 

 huge tooth, tusk, or other part of some extinct 

 animal, excites admiration and wonder, the wonder 



