114 
POPULAR SCIENCE REVIEW. 
of things exists in the Petunia of our gardens. The humble bee extracts 
the honey by making a slit in the tube, and avoids interference with the 
pollen. But Mr. Meehan found that these flowers are the favourite resort 
of Sphinxes and other night moths, which do extract the honey from the 
mouth of the tube, and thus cross fertilise. It would thus seem that plants 
not only do as a rule prefer fertilisation by insect agency, but probably some 
classes of flowers have their preferences for certain classes of insects. In 
the case of Salvia, probably some insects peculiar to their native countries 
fertilise them ; especially is this probable, as in cultivation the Salvia pro- 
duces very little seed. 
A New Form of Leech. — At a late meeting of the Academy of Natural 
Sciences, Philadelphia, Professor Leidy exhibited in a vessel of water 
numerous living specimens of a leech, which he said was abundant in the 
vicinity of Philadelphia, but appears to be an undescribed species. He had 
first observed it in a pond, on the Delaware, near Beverly, Burlington Co., 
N. J., from which he obtained the largest^ specimens. It was found es- 
pecially beneath half-submerged dead limbs of trees, sometimes between the 
bark and wood, and in crevices and holes of the latter made by insects. It 
was also found in the Delaware and Schuylkill rivers near shore, beneath 
stones. In ditches below the city, and communicating with the rivers men- 
tioned, smaller leeches, apparently the young of the same, were frequent 
between the leave sheaths of submerged stems of aquatic plants, such as 
Zizania aquation, Scirpus fluviatilis, Sagittaria , Sparganium , &c. When dis- 
turbed, the animal receded from its position of rest, and swam rapidly like 
the ordinary medicinal leech, Hirudo decora. It appears to belong to a dif- 
ferent genus from the latter, and approaches most in character Nephelis , 
though it even exhibits points of difference from this as ordinarily described. 
He has given it the name of Nephelis punctata. 
The Fer- de-lance of Martinique. — A remarkable instance of the develop- 
ment of this species was recorded lately by Professor Cope, who called attention 
to a large specimen of a Trigonocephalus, of which some fourteen inches were 
enclosed in the oesophagus and stomach of a larger Oxyrrhopus plumheus. 
The specimens were from the island of St. Lucia, West Indies. He stated 
that a species not distantly related to the latter ( Ophibolus getulus ) was said 
to have a similar habit of devouring our native Crotalidce. The islands of 
Martinique and Guadaloupe had become so infested with the fer-de-lance, 
Trigonocephalus lanceolatus, as to be in parts almost uninhabitable, and 
it was chiefly on account of the danger from this venomous reptile that 
collecting naturalists had of late years so seldom visited them. The annual 
number of deaths in Martinique from this cause was said to be very large. 
Some means had been adopted to check the increase of this pest, but with 
small results. Professor Cope thought that, as the Oxyrrhopus plumheus 
was very numerous in Venezuela and Brazil, and since it was very harmless 
and easily procured, its introduction in large numbers into Martinique, 
&c., would be a simple matter, and one probably to be attended with good 
results in the diminution, at least, of this enemy of agriculture. — Proceedings 
of the Society of Natural Science at Philadelphia. 
The Anatomy of the Panda. — At the meeting of the Zoological Society on 
Nov. 15 Professor Flower read a memoir on the anatomy of the Panda 
