THE YOUNG NATURALIST. 



99 



Exchange Club.— Several boxes promised 

 are not to hand. If not sent at once they 

 will be too late for this year's distribution. 



i\ G., Hartlepool. — We think your fungi are 

 "Truffles" Tuber astivum, found abund- 

 antly in certain districts, especially in 

 Beech or Oak woods. They are esculent 

 and highly esteemed as a delicacy. Swine 

 being very fond of them are often used to 

 indicate where they abound ; and dogs, by 

 their sense of smell, may he trained for the 

 same purpose. An instance is on record 

 of a boy who by the exercise of the same 

 faculty was able to discover " truffles." 

 They abound most in the southern 

 counties, where they form a marketable 

 commodity. 



R. J. T., Bootle.— Get Brown's "Practical 

 , Taxidermy." 



S. H., Hastings. — Your notes shall appear. 



CORRESPONDENCE. 



Sirs, — I have been reading the first volume 

 of the "Young Naturalist." and have been 

 much pleased with the papers on " Con- 

 chology," and the paragraphs on Variation 

 of the " British Butterflies." As Stainton's 

 •'Manual " is the only work I have on the 

 Tortrices and Tineina, I have found that where 

 I have made mistakes in naming, it has 

 usually been through ignorance of varieties : 

 for instance, who, with only " Stainton " to 

 go by, would be able to name correctly 

 Peat h ina cynosbana var. nubiferana ; I at first 

 took it for Poedisca bilunana, which, of course, 

 I had never seen. I think an inexpensive work 

 on British Lepidoptera, including the varieties, 

 is much needed. I enclose a few notes which 

 may prove of some interest to your readers. 

 I remain, yours very truly, S. Hume, Clive 

 Vale, Hasting. Jan. 19. 



Preserving Reptiles and Fishes. — Sirs, 

 — Would you kindly inform me through the 

 medium of your valuable journal the method 

 of skinning and preserving Reptiles and 

 Fishes. By so doing, at your earliest con- 

 venience, you will greatly oblige. Yours very 



respectfully, Robt. Jas. Thomtsox, Bootle, 

 Near Liverpool. Jan. 22. 

 [Will correspondents give their methods ?— 

 Eds.] 



NOTES, CAPTURES, &C. 



Hedgehog Holly. — A correspondent has 

 sent a specimen of the "hedgehog holly," a 

 variety of the common holly ( Ilex aquifolium ), 

 in this variety a considerable portion of the 

 surface of the leaf is thickly beset with 

 prickly spines, similar to those which fringe 

 the margin of an ordinary holly leaf, this 

 gives the leaf a very singular appearance, 

 having no inapt resemblance to a piece of 

 hedgehog skin, hence its common name. 

 This peculiar state is an evidence of degenera- 

 tion, caused by defective nutrition, or starva- 

 tion. It has long been observed that imper- 

 fectly nourished plants show a deficiency of 

 the parenchyma, that is the soft cellular por- 

 tion which fills up the interstices between 

 the veins, which form the skeleton or frame- 

 work of the leaf. Hence we find that plants 

 that are spiny or horny in their wild state 

 when brought under the influence of cultiva- 

 tion, and grown in richly manured soils, 

 rapidly lose these characteristics. Hairs, 

 spines, prickles being defensive organs of 

 the plant, a luxuriant profusion of them on a 

 weak, starveling individual is a natural com- 

 pensation by increased defences against pre- 

 datory attacks, for decreased vigor of growth 

 which would have enabled the plant to have 

 grown away from its assailant. This will 

 explain, what most people have observed, 

 that the upper leaves of luxuriant trees of 

 holly usually lose their spiny character, and 

 have their margins quite entire and smooth. 

 A somewhat analogous development has been 

 remarked in the animal world. The Scotch 

 have a proverb, " Hair and horn grow well 

 upon shargars." Shargar meaning a dwarfed, 

 diminutive, or deformed individual, and 

 many people will have noticed in cases of 

 sickness or debilitated states of the body how 

 rapidly the hairs and nails will grow. As 



