666 
QUERIES, ANSWERS, REMARKS, ETC. 
without food when I caught it; but I presented it with frogs, toads, worms, bee 
ties, spiders, mice, and every other delicacy of the season. I also tried to charm 
it with music, and my children stroked and caressed it, but all in vain. I kept 
it in an old barrel out of doors, for the first three weeks; during that time it eat 
nothing, but after a very wet night, it seemed to suffer from cold. I then put it 
into a glass vessel, and set it on the parlour chimney-piece, covering the vessel 
with a piece of silk gauze. I caught two live mice, and put them in the vessel, 
it never attempted to eat them, but they sat shivering on its back, while it lay 
coiled up; I gave the mice some boiled potatoes which they eat, but the snake 
would eat neither the mice nor the potatoes. My children often took it out in 
their hands, to shew it to their schoolfellows; I one day took it in my hand, and 
opened its mouth w'ith a penknife, to shew a gentleman how different it was from 
that of the adder, which I had dead by me, its teeth being no more formidable 
than those of an Eel or Trout, wdiile the mouth of the adder had tw o fangs, like 
the claws of a cat, attached to the roof of the mouth, no way connected wdth its 
jaw-teeth ; while thus examining it, an intolerable obnoxious smell w r as emitted, 
I also thought I felt a kind of prickling numbness in the hand I held it in, which 
continued for some weeks afterwards. It made its escape from me several times, 
by boring a hole through the gauze. I had lost it for several days at one time, 
but at length found it peeping out of a mouse-hole behind one of the cellar steps, 
whether it had caught any beetles or spiders I cannot say, but it looked very 
lively. I again confined it in a flour-barrel, from which it made its escape, and 
shortly afterwards met with its death.—J. Howden. — May. Nat. Hist. 
PART III. 
MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 
I.—QUERIES, ANSWERS, REMARKS, ETC. 
Culture of the Ho'ya Ca'rnosa. —I should feel greatly obliged, if you or 
some of your subscribers, would favour me in some future number with the mode 
of treatment, and the native soil of the Hoya Camosa, as I have not been able 
to gather information from any books I have hitherto met with. 
• Florilegus. 
Essex , May 1th, 1832. 
On the Culture of Rhubarb. —Having read with pleasure Dr. Bevan’s 
excellent method of cultivating Rhubarb, Hort. Reg. page 486—7, I beg to sub¬ 
mit the following question to the Doctor. 
Does Dr. Bevan think the flower stalk should be cut on its appearance, or be 
allowed to perfect the seed ? Your opinion also, gentlemen, will greatly oblige. 
r p * * * * 
R 
d, May 1th, 1832. 
