56 
NATURE NOTES. 
Such Selbornians as are in want of a “birthday book,” either for their own 
use or as a present to others, cannot do better than get Through all the Varying 
Year (G. Allen, 4s.), arranged by Miss Mary Jeaffreson. The extracts given from 
“ nature-loving poets ” are by no means of the hackneyed type of which books of 
this kind are too often composed, and each is connected with the natural pheno- 
mena assigned to the day or month. Thus under March ist we have Mr. 
William Morris’s lines : — - 
“ .Slayer of Winter, art thou here again ? 
O welcome, thou that bringest Summer nigh ! 
The bitter wind makes not thy victory vain. 
Welcome, O March ! whose kindly days and dry 
Make April ready for the throstle’s song ! 
Thou first redresser of the winter’s wrong 1 ” 
It is a charming little selection, and cannot fail to please the lover of nature. 
We ought to have noticed sooner what appears to be a very complete List 
of the Macro-lepidoptera and Birds of Winchester and the vicinity, compiled by 
members of the Winchester College Natural History .Society, and published at 
the low price of sixpence. Mr. A. W. I. Fisher enumerates 425 butterflies and 
moths, which have all occurred within six miles of the College, and Mr. S. A. 
Davies enumerates the birds. Such lists as these are evidence of much careful 
investigation, and are very creditable to the compilers. If they can induce the 
printer to omit from any future issue the typographical “ ornaments ” — which 
are by no means ornamental — their list will be as creditable in appearance as it is 
excellent in execution. 
SELBORNIA.NA. 
Mummy Wheat. — As we pointed out on p. 35, the mummy wheat myth 
still survives ; and it may therefore be worth while to reprint the following extract 
from a lecture delivered last month at Grantham, by Mr. M'illiam Carruthers, 
F. R. S., and reported in the local journal : — “ They might consider that the extreme 
life of a grain of wheat was twelve years. He had tested this by experiments, 
and many others had done the same, so it was quite certain that they could not 
grow a seed of wheat after this period had elapsed Of course, this 
cut at the root of all stoiies about mummy wheat. It was quite certain, as had 
been clearly est.ablished again and again, that no seed which was buried with 
the mummy at the time it was put in the coffin had ever germinated. It was not 
only the examination of the seed that would establish that ; experiments had been 
made to show that this was not the case. He himself had examined a large 
number of seeds in the British Museum, taken from mummies, and they were all 
in the same condition that the mummy itself was in. It would be impossible to 
stretch out the arm of a mummy, because the whole of the muscle was entirely 
biTrnt up by the slow action of the oxygen, and it was completely rigid. It was so 
with the whole of those grains of wheat, and flax, and various other seeds that 
were preserved — they were in the same condition. They had been subject to the 
slow burning action of the oxygen, and the whole of their vitality had disap- 
peared. With regard to what was grown as mummy wheat, it was only a form of 
corn that was still extensively cultivated on the southern shores of the Mediter- 
ranean, and was easily obtained from Arabs and others, who were always ready to 
impose upon travellers, who brought it home as true mummy wheat.” .Sel- 
bornians may also refer to Professor Henslow’s article on the subject, printed in 
Nature Notes for 1890, p. 119. 
“Dead Larks.” — My attention has been called to the following advertise- 
ment in the Times of January 26, 1892 : “France. — Dead Larks— ten dozen, price 
25f. six dozen, i6f. 25c. (13s.); three dozen, 8f. 75c. (7s.); carriage paid 
on all orders accompanied with remittances. J. Bonglon, a Larroque, par 
Condom (Gers).” The foregoing suggests two trains of thought : one of pity for 
France and her silent larks, the other of shame that Englishmen should be so 
unappreciative and so dead of soul, that a mercenary Frenchman should find it 
