OBSERVATIONS NEWS. 



5 



Daphm Mezereum, in Bucks. Mr. F. 



H. Hanbury, writes — in reference to this 

 plant : — ' ' I had the pleasure, in company 

 with Mr. Lawson last Friday week, (6th 

 April), of finding Daphne Mezereum, in two 

 localities, near High Wycombe, * Bucks, 

 rhey were indicated to us, I should state, 

 by Messrs. Britten and Trimen, but the 

 lormer had not found it in them this sea- 

 son. The plants were very rare — in both 

 olaces together we did not see over a 

 dozen shrubs, although we hunted well." 



Leucojum vernum, Linn. J. C. Mansel, 

 Esq., of Longthorns, writes to the Journal 

 '>f Botany", (p. 123) that he has visited 

 Bridport and is able to confirm Mr. Hardy's 

 suggestion as to Leucojum vernum being 

 orobably a British plant. He found it 

 ^^jrowing in abundance for a distance of 

 iUOi-e than a quarter of a mile on the 

 )anks and sides of a thick hedge-row in a 

 ■emote valley, in which there are no 

 louses. 



Dr. Lindley's Herbarium. — "With the ex- 

 ception of the Orchidaceoe, which are now in 

 !.he Kew herbarium, the University of 

 Cambridge has purchased the whole of the 

 lerbarium of the late Dr. Lindley for the 

 urn of £300. 



A strange position for a Bird's Nest. — 

 )n the 14th of last month, a woman named 

 s^astbury, was missed from her home near 

 'ilocksley, in AYarv/ickshire, and although 

 she most diligent search was made for her 

 !)y the police and her friends, no trace 

 ould be found of her whereabouts. On 

 Sunday last, a man named Mark Spires, 

 ;^as passing along the warren, near Dove- 

 ■:ale, on Lord Northwick's estate, when 

 is attention was drawn to the cackling of 

 I moorhen on the side of a small ornamen- 

 al lake, nearly surrounded by laurels and 

 hrubs. He went to the place to see what 

 7as the matter, and was horrified on find- 

 agthe dead body of the missijig woman in 

 . highly decomposed state. The moorhen, 

 * Naturalist Vol. ii. 16. 312. 



which had arrested his attention in the first 

 instance, had built its nest on the bosom 

 of the corpse, and it contained seven eggs 

 in a forward state for hatching. An inquest 

 was held upon the. corpse, when the coro- 

 ner's jury returned a verdict of " Found 

 drowned." 



Chinese Mode of Taking Honey. — Mr. 

 Fortune, the well-known English botanist, 

 thus describes the mode adopted by the 

 Chinese lor taking honey from bee-hives. 

 He says : ' ' The Chinese hive is a very 

 rude aff'air, and looks very diff'erent from 

 what we are accustomed to use in England ; 

 yet, I suspect, were the bees consulted in 

 this matter, they would prefer the Chinese 

 to ours. It consists of a rough box, some- 

 times square and sometimes cylindrical, 

 with a moveable top and bottom. When 

 the bees are put into a hive of this descrip- 

 tion it is rarely placed on or near the 

 ground, as with us, but it is raised eight or 

 ten feet, and generally fixed upon a pro- 

 jecting roof of a house or outbuilding. No 

 doubt the Chinese have remarked the 

 partiality the insects have for places of this 

 kind, when they choose quarters for them- 

 selves, and have taken a lesson from this 

 circumstance. My landlord, who had a 

 number of hives, having determined one 

 day to take some honey from two of them, 

 a half-witted priest, who was famous for 

 his powers in such matters, was sent for 

 to perform the operation. This man, in 

 addition to his priestly duties, had charge 

 of the buffaloes which were kept on the 

 farm attached to the temple. He came 

 round in high glee, evidently considering 

 his qualification of no ordinary kind for the 

 operation he was about to perform. Curious 

 to witness his method of proceeding with 

 the business, I left some work with which 

 I was busy, and followed him and the other 

 priests and servants of the establishment 

 to the place where the hives were fixed. 

 The form of the hive in this instance was 

 cylindrical ; each was about three feet in 

 length, and rather wider at the bottom 

 than at the top. When we reached the 



