324 



The Museum Gazette 



Society on June 19, 1810. He concludes with remarking upon the- 

 presence of Sirex gigas in the nursery of a gentleman, " to the no- 

 small discomfiture of both nurse and children, in consequence of its 

 size and wasp-like appearance ; a few days afterwards several insects 

 of that species came out of the floor of the same room." This cir- 

 cumstance was related to him by Sir Joseph Banks. 



Vitality in Seeds. — Landreth, in the Proc. Amer. Phil. Soc, No. 

 182, records that a packet of radish seed left in the attic of Fort 

 Conger, 8i° 44' N., by Lieutenant Greely, Commander of the Lady 

 Franklin Bay Expedition in 1883, was discovered by Lieutenant 

 Peary (Commander of the Polar Expedition) in 1899. The seeds 

 were sent home, and sown in the spring of 1905. Though they were 

 then at least twenty-three years old, and for sixteen years had been 

 exposed to a winter temperature of 6o° to 70 0 F. below zero, no less, 

 than 50 per cent, of them produced perfectly normal plants. 



Wellingtonias Struck by Lightning. — Mr. Bloomfield writes, 

 concerning the Wellingtonia that was struck by lightning at Guestling, 

 near Hastings : " The tree was struck near the top, and a narrow strip 

 of bark was raised from near the top almost to the bottom. There- 

 was standing close to the tree an iron roller with its long iron handle 

 resting against it. The lightning went down the tree as far as the 

 iron handle and then, I presume, passed through the roller into the 

 earth, for there was no mark beyond the handle. The tree has since 

 looked sickly, as if about to die, but is still alive. I suppose it was 

 struck from six to eight years ago— I do not remember exactly how 

 long." 



ENQUIRER. — Your leaves are those of the Western Plane 

 {Planfanus occideiitalis). We hope you observe the marvellous way in 

 which the new leaf-buds are protected. In most trees they are formed 

 in the angle at the junction of the leaf-stem and the twig, but in the-, 

 plane the base of the leaf-stalk actually encircles the bud. Upon the 

 fall of the leaf, the buds are protected by a resinous substance, as in 

 the familiar great sticky buds of the horse-chestnut. 



Carlyle's " Life of Cobbetj." — A Postscript. 



It is due alike to ourselves and the author to acknowledge that Mr;. 

 E. J. Carlyle's recently published "William Cobbett" was only 

 brought to our knowledge just before going to press. Had we known 

 of this work, what has been said at p. 278 would have been much- 

 modified, or possibly omitted. The Times Catalogue says of it : " A 

 clever study of the bustling life and vigorous personality of the- 

 impetuous reformer." We have not yet seen it. 



