194 
NATURE NOTES 
be expedient to correct the original spelling ; but I fail to see that they were 
so. It is true that there is in classical Greek an adjective Butikos, meaning 
“diving,” which might well be used substantively as “a diver.” Linne was 
no mean Classical scholar and was, moreover, fond of diminutives. In Words- 
worth’s Greek Grammar many years ago I learnt that “ Derivata ab aliis 
Substantivis sunt . . Deminutiva.” . . “ Deminutiva, vel deinittutionem 
significant, vel amoris quattdam faluitaUm" . . “ Masculina sunt, qute 
desinunt in ktkos, ut x'Trvr'fo'Kor ttmicula a xitoi;' ; a.v0pci>ir'KTKOs homunculus 
ab avOptinros homo.” Dytiscus would seem, therefore, to be a correctly formed, 
though perhaps not classical, name for a little diver or an animal extremely fond 
of diving. — E d. N.N.'\ 
165. Lusus Naturae. — There are several peculiar examples of this in my 
garden this year, and I am wondering whether they are owing to the wet season 
we have had, or to blight, or to both. The first examples were two buds of the 
Souvenir-de-Malmaison rose, which were unable to come out comfortably lie- 
cause the centres were full of tiny green buds without stems, but perfect otherwise : 
one had ten of these in the middle of it. The second instance is much more 
remarkable. Two Canterbury-bell plants at opposite extremities of the garden 
are indulging in the same kind of freak. One is three feet high twisted spirally 
from right to left, a very wide stem like a split pipe from an inch and a half to 
nearly two inches deep, down which the rain runs in a stream. The whole of 
the stem inside and out, is covered with little narrow leaves, and along the edges 
normal blooms on short stems, but the top is crowned with a kind of frill com- 
posed of four or five blooms run into one, full of stamens, and with a pistil like a 
fan in shape, with a row of little curls for stigma, two of these in one flower. 
The calyx surrounds the whole flower and is not divided. One plant has three 
stems from the root, the largest as I have described, the other two narrow and 
flat with normal flowers. The other plant has five stems, three of which are 
crowned by the frilled flower, and five other blooms semi-detached. They are a 
handsome purple mass, but look “uncanny.” The third example is to be seen 
on several evening-primrose plants which are crowned at the top of each stem 
by what looks like a brush with normal buds below. It remains to be seen, 
when they issue into bloom, what they will look like. These and the Canterbury 
bellg are self-sown, and some are in a hot dry border, some in the more damp 
and shady. 
M. S. Young. 
166. Copper Beech. — Might I suggest that the green leaves referred to 
on page 156 , in your July issue (which are very common this year) are merely 
leaves which have not, as I surmise happened with purple ones, been injured by 
the cold nights. In many instances the colour of leaves and some flowers is due 
to injury or decay. Has your correspondent noticed the green-coloured leaves of 
such trees in the Autumn ? 
Tunbridge Wells. George Abbott. 
167. Cloud-Burst. — During a thunderstorm at the end of July a cloud- 
burst occurred on a large field in this village. The burst itself spread over twenty 
or thirty acres, and the water cut large furrows in the earth. It then rushed down 
the road, tearing it up like the bed of a torrent. My house is 400 yards from the 
field, and during the storm the downpour was such as is rarely experienced ia 
England. The field, which had just been sown with turnips, must be harrowed 
over again and resown. 
Southacre, Swaffham, EDMUND Thos. Daubeny. 
Aug-ust, 1904 . 
