material alone. The individual parts of delicate objects preserved their proper relations; the preparation remains dry, and the process of making sections does not require the use of alcohol, and sections can be made as thin as when paraffin only is used. The method is as follows:-The alcoholic preparation is allowed to lie for a few hours in a mixture of equal volumes of alcohol and ether; it is then placed for twenty-four hours in a solution of celloidin, the strength of which is immaterial. It is now placed in ordinary oil of origanum, subsequently in a mixture of paraffin and oil of origanum, which should not be over 104° Fahr. in temperature, and finally in melted paraffin. The length of time that it should remain in the oil of origanum, in the solution of paraffin, and in the melted paraffin, depends on the character of the object, and must be ascertained by trial.

NEW SLIDES.-From Mr. F. Enock (Woking), we have received a splendidly-mounted specimen of the large jumping spider (Salticus tardigradus) mounted without pressure. The object retains the natural form of the creature, and the eyes are as brilliant as noble opals. It is mounted as an opaque object. Mr. Ernest Hinton (12 Vorley Road, Upper Holloway) has kindly forwarded us a most interesting and cleverly cut and mounted preparation, shewing the unisexual flowers from inside the common fig. It plainly illustrates the remarkable mode of reproduction of this plant. The flowers are packed all over the inner surface, and are merely divided from each other by soft, colourless bracts. The specimen is intended to be examined by the paraboloid.

ZOOLOGY.

THE BOAR-FISH (Capros aper, Cuv.; Lens aper, Linn.). Yesterday morning, April 19th, five living. specimens of this rare and beautiful fish were sent me from Babbicombe, where they had been just caught in a mackerel-net. They had been unfortunately conveyed in so small a quantity of water, that by the time they reached me they were nearly exhausted. Yet on being immediately put into a large marine aquarium, two of them revived. These have passed the night well, and are vigorous this morning; their brilliant hues, and sprightly movements, rendering them ornamental and attractive. The specimens were all exactly alike. Total length 5 inches, vertical depth (from points of first dorsal to points of ventral) 34 inches; thickness, just behind head, inch :colour pale scarlet, fading to pearly white on belly, rich vermilion on back, whence undefined bands run vertically down each side; the stouter fin-rays are tipped with scarlet. Yarrell (Br. Fish. vol. i. 190) has given a very good figure of the species, which he considers one of much rarity, insomuch that the first

British capture of it recorded (in October, 1825) was considered an occurrence worthy of being communicated to the Zoological Society. The present is, however, not the only occasion on which I have known it taken in Babbicombe Bay; where it is known by the name of the Fan Dory, in apparent distinction from its near ally, the John Dory (il janitore). In captivity, as I have said, this charming fish is of graceful and pleasing manners. Ever retaining its vertical position, it swims incessantly about, gliding to and fro into every part of the tank, usually a few inches below the surface, ever protruding and retracting its telescopic snout, its strong spinous fins erected, and its immense liquid eyes greatly enhancing its beauty.-P. H. Gosse, F.R.S., Sandhurst, St. Mary church, Torquay.

PHYSA ELLIPTICA.-On the 12th of October, 1887, I was at Powderhorn, in Gunnison, co. Colorado, and close to White Earth Creek I found a very small and shallow pool crowded with a species of Physa new to the Colorado fauna, which Mr. H. A. Pilsbry has kindly determined for me as P. elliptica, Lea. This species has something of the outline of P. fontinalis, but the mantle is not spread over the shell. The specimens belonged to a var. decollata, having the spire eroded and truncate, which may have been due to overcrowding, and the fact that the only food they had consisted of dark green globular algæ, about the same size as the physæ. Small limnæa are now very abundant in the road-side ditches about West Cliff, Custer co., which I cannot distinguish from European Limnaa truncatula, although in America they would be referred to L. humilis, Say.— T. D. A. Cockerell, West Cliff, Colorado, May 10th, 1888.

BOOK-WORMS.-In the interest of a number of book-lovers out here, I avail myself of the pages of your popular and widely-read journal to bring the facts stated below to the notice of the publishing firms at home. Recent publications are attacked by larvæ, which in many cases bore their way right through a book. They usually start from the inner edge, or thereabouts, of the covers; in other cases they select other points of attack, while in several instances the bore begins mysteriously in the very heart of a volume. I have found larvæ and pupæ, and frequently little brown beetles (in one case four or five ant-pupa) in these borings, but I think the beetle larva is the chief delinquent. I have not found ova. The new "serials," indeed all new books, biographies, science primers and manuals, and the like, are special favourites with these pests. Mites sometimes are to be found, and lepismæ, which are said to feed on mites, but not to injure the books themselves. I now "kyanize" all new books with a weak solution of corrosive sublimate dissolved in spirits of wine, and applied freely to the inner surfaces of the covers, about the binding, &c.,

but of course not to the outside anywhere. The remedy, however, is not a pleasant one when applied in my method; it would be better if the paste employed in binding were itself so poisoned. As the larvae do not attack unbound papers, stitched or wired magazines, &c., it seems fairly safe to infer that it is the paste which proves attractive, and that it should be poisoned with some drug which will retain its toxical properties in sufficient strength to destroy the young larvæ as soon as they touch it. I have had books attacked in the course of one week. The point to be remembered is that it is the newlybound volumes which suffer; old books escape.W. J. Simmons, Calcutta.

DEVELOPMENT OF THE GNAT.-Errata, page 133. The following figures should be transposed:-Fig. 55 should be 56; Fig. 56 should be 55.

PALLAS'S SAND GROUSE (Syrrhaptes paradoxus). Six specimens of this rare and remarkable bird were killed from a large flock in the neighbourhood of Fyvie on the 26th of May; they had been seen for some time previous in small and in large flocks. Being natives of the far east, they have probably been driven here by stress of weather, and are now seeking breeding-ground. It would be very interesting to know if they should remain to breed, being unknown in the British Isles before 1859.-W. Sym, Fyvie.

IRRUPTION OF PALLAS'S SAND-GROUSE.-Mr. W. Eagle Clarke, F.L.S., the senior assistant in the Museum of Science and Art, Edinburgh, writes as follows to the "Naturalist":"Once more, after an interval of a quarter of a century, Europe and the British Isles are the scene of an irruption of Pallas's sand-grouse (Syrrhaptes paradoxus, Pall.), large flocks of which, leaving their home in the Steppes of Central Asia, have been making their way westward during the past month or two. On the 21st of April they appeared in various localities in Poland; on the 27th, they reached Saxony; on the 5th of May they were seen in the island of Rügen, and on the 7th in Holstein. They reached England about ten days later. On the 17th of May a specimen was brought in the flesh to me at the Leeds Museum, which was said to have been shot in Dewsbury Road, Leeds. On the 18th Mr. Philip W. Lawton saw five at Shurn, and the same day (as Mr. Lawton informs me) a man at Patrington saw a party of about a score. Since then Mr. Lawton has had numerous examples brought to him for preserving. On the 19th, Mr. Donkin saw a party of twenty in a field adjoining the Ardsley reservoir, near Leeds. 20th large flocks, as reported in the newspapers, were seen in Oxfordshire, and at Hoddesdon, in Hertfordshire; and others, the date of which I have not seen noted, were reported from Clifton, Nottinghamshire. On the 24th, Mr. Thos. Bunher wrote me

On the

that one had been captured alive near Goole, and on the same date Mr. Frederick Boyes, of Beverley, wrote me that about fifty or sixty had been seen at Flamborough, and that Mr. Harper, of Scarborough, had called to tell him that he had seen about thirty at Spurn. In a note in "The Field" of May 26th, Mr. Boyes remarked that these birds appeared on the east coast of Yorkshire on the anniversary of the day on which they were first observed a quarter of a century ago, and that a flock seen on the 20th, at an East Yorkshire locality, the name of which he does not give, contained at least a dozen birds. In the same note he states further, that a friend saw about thirty at Spurn on the 25th of the month. On the 24th, one was telegraphed on the Boroughbridge Rcad, near Norton-le-Clay, and eight others are said to have been seen in the neighbourhood. As it is desirable that an ample record should be kept of this most noteworthy and interesting ornithological event, I hope all readers who have it in their power will communicate to this journal full details and particulars to such occurrences in Northumberland, Durham, Yorkshire, Lincoln shire, Nottinghamshire (including the details of the Clifton instance), Derbyshire, Cheshire, Lancashire, Westmoreland, Cumberland, and the Isle of Man, as may come within their observation."

BOTANY.

A MAY RAMBLE AT PRINSTED.-Unpromising localities sometimes reward the explorer in unexpected ways and delight him with the sight of plants little anticipated. Prinsted Common, at the western extremity of Sussex, appears to have been long ago reclaimed from the sea, which still occasionally makes inroads upon it. Flat and of small dimensions, there is little to interest in its immediate scenery, excepting the distant S. Downs and the intermediate spires of Chichester Cathedral and that of the ancient church of Bosham; but the tract itself, an expanse of sward, surrounded by banks, contains a very varied flora. Among the Cerastiums largely predominates C. tetrandrum with its fine white blossoms intermingled with abundance of Manchia erecta. The turf is decked with Trifolium subterraneum, T. minus, and T. filiforme; and occasionally patches of Trigonella ornithopodioides are to be seen. One of the banks presented at intervals quantities of the pale pinkish petals of Cochlearia Danica, which in hue differs so much from its congeners as to be easily recognisable, not to speak of its deltoid leaves. Near it amongst the grass also appeared an unexpected little plant Myosurus minimus, of various size, from half an inch (in full flower) to six or seven inches in height. Most botanical records mention it as growing in fields or gravel pits, but here it seems to delight in a different situation, and it appears to be sporadic, for a year

Ranunculus

ago, not an example could be seen. parviflorus occurred in plenty. Myosotis collina studded the ground with its blue blossoms, and not far off M. versicolor also grew with Aira præcox. Plantago coronopus was one of the most abundant plants on the common, which is fringed on one side by the curious trailing Torilis nodosa, while later on in the season Bupleurum tenuissimum is also to be found here. Passing towards the shore Lepidium campestre was conspicuous, and a small pool was completely mantled with white by the flowers of Ranunculus Baudotii. An hour's ramble was thus well repaid, on a lovely spring afternoon.-F. H. Arnold.

spirit, one part? If so, I should be glad to hear what their experiences have been. The experiences I had were most disastrous. The recipe said, for plants with fleshy leaves twelve to eighteen hours will be sufficient. So I put some Orchis mascula in the solution, and in twelve hours took them out; the effect was peculiar, the leaves were flabby, and of a dirty yellowish-green colour, and the flowers had a little colour and shape left, but I defy any botanist to determine what species they belong to. Thinking I might have left them in too long, I tried some Cochlearia Anglica, and left it in forty minutes; on taking out, the leaves were flabby, and of the same

LYCHNIS DIOICA.-I have just noticed a singular | instance of change of colour, in certain specimens of Lychnis dioica, which bore pure white flowers last summer; have their petals this summer of a pale red colour, and do not appear to be quite as large in size as the white ones. The plant grows in a wellsheltered spot not far from the sea coast.-Geo. Rees.

NATURAL GRAFTING.-I saw rather a peculiar thing the other day-a large branch had broken off a box-tree, and in falling, had stuck in a fork of the tree, and there the branch is growing. In falling, the branch must have bruised through the bark and the sap run from the tree into the branch. It has evidently been there some years, as the branch is quite grown over in the fork.-E. C. Pope, South Yalgogrin, N. S. Wales.

UNUSUAL CASE OF GERMINATION.-I am sending you a sketch of a melon seedling (Fig. 73). I found it growing on the pulp inside a very large water-melon. It seemed quite happy in the dark; there was room for it to stretch, as these melons are rather hollow. The two leaves were a bright, tender green. One or two other seeds were just beginning to sprout. The sketch is life-size.-Amy Hensley, Sholapur, India.

PRESERVING THE COLOURS OF PLANTS.-Have any of the readers of SCIENCE-GOSSIP tried a process for preserving the colours of plants for the Herbarium recommended in the Annals of Botany,' and consisting of sulphurous acid, three parts; methylated

dirty yellow-green colour as those of the orchis. I then tried some flowers of Scilla nutans, and in ten minutes they had lost every vestige of colour. Is this preserving the colours of plants? If so, I would rather stick to the old style of drying. There is also a process with salicylic acid and methylated spirit. Do any of your readers know anything of it ?-A. E. Lomax.

USTILAGO RECEPTACULORUM.-Could any reader of SCIENCE-GOSSIP favour me with a fresh specimen of the goat's-beard smut during the present summer?— Charles B. Plowright, 7 King Street, King's Lynn.

GEOLOGY, &c.

THE GLACIATION OF THE ISLE OF MAN.-In SCIENCE-GOSSIP for April last (p. 73) is an article entitled "In the Isle of Man," by Dr. P. Q. Keegan, in which several remarkable theories and statements as to matters geological are set forth. The author makes merry at the expense of geologists because, forsooth, they ascribe certain boulder-deposits to glacial action, and says, "the idea of these outlying, heterogeneous masses of rocks being gradually pushed up from below by some lateral or other pressure, seems never to have tickled their heads." It always appears to me unwise to suppose oneself superior to scientific authorities without first carefully examining the evidence and the existing theories.

That geologists are well acquainted with the fact, that materials may be "pushed up from below [i.e. from the sea-bottom] by some lateral or other pressure," is shown by a note in Dr. A. Geikie's Text Book, 2nd edition, p. 897, in which we read, "Mere fragments of marine shells in a glacial deposit need not prove submergence under the sea; for they may have been pushed up from the sea-floor by moving ice, as in the case of the shelly till of the west of Scotland, Caithness, Holderness, and Cromer." Professor H. Carvill Lewis, speaking of what he terms the Irish Sea Glacier, says, "South of Manchester it contains flints and shell-fragments, brought by the glacier from the sea-bottom over which it passed." British Association Report, 1887, p. 692. To suppose, however, that most deposits called glacial are merely scrapings from the seabottom is to ignore the abundant evidence afforded by those boulders, the origin of which can be traced. Dr. Keegan continues, "there is little or no evidence of local glaciers, or indeed of ice chiselling of any kind." On this point I can speak from personal knowledge, as I formed one of a party of the British Association which visited the island in September 1887. At Scarlet Point, to south of Castletown, a considetable, slightly sloping surface of carboniferous limestone has been exposed by removal of the surfacesoil, in a large quarry close to the shore. On the limestone are unmistakable glacial striæ, the direction of which two observations gave as E. 35° N. and E. 37° N. (corrected 21° for magnetic declination). I have a piece of the striated limestone. At Port St. Mary, on the outer side of the shore end of the new concrete pier, even more distinct glacial striæ were observed, on the carboniferous limestone, which slopes towards the sea. The average direction of the striæ is E. 33° N. This is within 2° to 41° of being the same as that observed at Scarlet Point. In both cases several square yards of rock were covered with striæ. From the beds immediately overlying the limestone at Port St. Mary and from within 3 or 4 feet horizontally and vertically of the striæ, I have obtained a rounded and well-scratched boulder, 4 inches long, and weighing 1 lb. 13 oz. These facts are, I think, sufficient to show that the Isle of Man has suffered some glaciation. The beautifully rounded and undulating outlines of the hills suggest the same thing, although Mr. H. B. Woodward says (Geol. of England and Wales, 2nd edition, p. 79), "In consequence of its want of durability, the mountains of this [Skiddaw] slate, as John Phillips remarked, have smoother contours, more uniform slopes, and a more verdant surface than those of the Borrowdale Series." Not all the clay-slate of the Isle of Man, at any rate, appears to be wanting in durability, judging by the excellent state of preservation of the Runic crosses at Kirk Braddan, which are supposed to date from between A.D. 1170 and 1230. The ice at Scarlet Point and

NIGHT-FLOWERING CONVOLVULUS.-I have before me "A Tour round my Garden," translated from the French of Alphonse Karr by the Rev. J. G. Wood, 1856. On page 65 I read "The Convolvulus does not expand its flowers till the night is pretty far advanced," and again, page 143, "Convolvulus, whole flowers close and fade as soon as they are touched by the sun." What species of Convolvulus blossoms by night, as is here stated?-Julie Hodgson.

REMARKABLE FROST PHENOMENON.-About the 12th January there occurred here a frost phenomenon, a brief notice of which may be interesting to the readers of SCIENCE-GOSSIP. During the week commencing on the 8th, the weather was remarkably mild and spring-like-so mild indeed that my wife and I went down to the coast and spent some delightful days in geological exploration-gathering, amongst other good finds, an ammonite new to the Yorkshire Lias. Towards the end of the week the sun became obscured by a dense fog, though the weather still continued mild. I found on returning home that the fog had been prevalent there also. Some days later, passing over the high ground which separates this parish from the neighbouring parish of Bilsdale, I observed branches of trees broken off on all sides, some of them quite six inches in diameter at the point of breakage. In some cases the tops of spruce firs were broken off, and some smaller trees were broken short off in the stem. Finding a man mending the road I obtained from him the cause of all this destruction, which had certainly puzzled me, as there had been hardly a breath of wind of late. I found that during the time of the fog the trees on the lower grounds had been dripping with moisture. On the higher ground the temperature had fallen below freezing-point, and the moisture had continuously frozen on the branches. Near the summit the amount of moisture had been augmented by a breeze drifting it out of Bilsdale. Pointing to quite a small branch, which had fallen with many others upon the road, so as to make it impassable for carriages, the man told me that, when the ice was upon it, he had only just been able to lift it over the wall.-John Hawell, Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage, Northallerton.

VARNISHING PHOTO GELATINE DRY PLATES.-I should be glad to know if white hard spirit varnish would be suitable for varnishing photographic gelatine dry plates. I have a large quantity of the

spirit varnish and have bought repeatedly negative varnish at three times the price, and should be pleased to know if the varnish I name would do. Surely there is nothing in the spirit varnish that could be unsuitable, and nothing in the so-called negative varnish that is absent from the best white hard spirit varnish. That which I have is the best to be obtained, made by the most reputed varnish manufacturers. -H. Fisher.

SACCHARINE. Referring to the article on Saccharine for May, can Mr. Wicks say why Saccharine is precribed for patients suffering from Diabetes when sugar is considered harmful?-Rev. H. Whittaker, Peterborough.

YEW-TREES, THEIR AGE, &c.-You were good enough to admit into your January number a letter of mine inviting discussion on yew-trees, and the mode of ascertaining their age. In your February number three letters appear in reply. I wish, first of all, to thank the writers. In the first letter, A. G. Tansley calls my attention to "the two finest yews in the Malvern country, in Cradley churchyard,” and adds that “the largest is 26 feet in circumference,' quoting a "Botany of Malvern" as his authority. I have since measured the Cradley yews, and found one 17 feet 7 inches, and the other 17 feet 9 inches in circumference, making allowance in the one case for a portion of trunk which had evidently disappeared. J. Saunders, Luton, the writer of the second letter, is good enough to promise the measurement of some Bedfordshire yews. Both these writers, however, seem to object to the measurement of the diameter instead of the radius. Allow me to explain that I used the word "line" in its arithmetical sense, as meaning th of an inch, and without any reference whatever to the concentric rings, and I adopted the diameter as simply a convenient mode of expressing the size. I have to thank W. E. Windus for calling attention to the Crowhurst (Sussex) tree, and for the promise of the photograph, a copy of which I have since received. Your correspondent F. C. D. B. in the March number, besides giving particulars of the yew at Ankerwyke House, also evidently thinks the size may be conveniently expressed by the length of the diameter. And this is, of course, the same thing as measuring the circumference and taking one-third of it as representing the diameter, only in taking the circumference it must always be the smallest circumference, whether it is three feet or more or less from the ground being a matter of no moment. authority for taking a line of diameter to represent a yew, I refer to Mons. A. P. de Candolle's remarks on the subject in Dr. Pye Smith's "Geology and Scripture,' as follows:-"Of all European trees, the yew appears to me to be that which attains the greatest age. If for very old yews we take the mean of one line a year, it is probable that we are below the truth" (it is necessary, however, here to add that he takes the line to be th of an inch), "and that in reckoning the number of their years of age as equal to that of their lines of diameter, we make them younger than they are." He continues: "Now I have become acquainted with the measurement of four celebrated yews in England. That of Fountain Abbey, . . . . of which we have historical notices in 1133, was, according to Pennant, in 1770, 1214 lines in diameter, which will give above 1200 years of age. That in the churchyard of Crowhurst, Surrey, is stated by Evelyn, in 1660, to be 1287 lines of diameter. . . . That of Fotheringhall, in Scotland, had in 1770 a diameter of 2588 lines, and its age is

As an

consequently twenty-five to twenty-six centuries. That in the churchyard of Braburn, Kent, had in 1660 a diameter of 2880 lines; if, then, it be still in existence, it must have reached 3000 years." The Braburn yew, may add, is no longer in existence. In 1660, when Evelyn measured it, he found it 58 feet in circumference. Balfour, in his "Botany and Religion," adopts Mons. de Candolle's list of "Remarkable Trees, the ages of which have been ascertained," and gives 2880 years as the greatest of the yew. In an article in " Eng. Cyc." on the age of trees, there is a "Table of the Rate of Increase in Diameter of certain Exogenous Trees expressed in Lines," and amongst them a yew seventy-one years old, whose diameter was 69 lines.-P. J.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

TO CORRESPONDENTS AND EXCHANGERS.-As we now publish SCIENCE-GOSSIP earlier than formerly, we cannot undertake to insert in the following number any communications which reach us later than the 8th of the previous month.

TO ANONYMOUS QUERISTS.-We must adhere to our rule of not noticing queries which do not bear the writers' names. TO DEALERS AND OTHERS.-We are always glad to treat dealers in natural history objects on the same fair and general ground as amateurs, in so far as the "exchanges" offered are fair exchanges. But it is evident that, when their offers are simply disguised advertisements, for the purpose of evading the cost of advertising, an advantage is taken of our gratuitous insertion of "exchanges" which cannot be tolerated.

WE request that all exchanges may be signed with name (or initials) and full address at the end.

J. A. H. and others.-The author of "Sagacity and Morality of Plants" was slightly in error in referring (page 31) to Mr. Grant Allen's work on "The Shapes of Leaves." The subject was treated upon by Mr. Allen in "Nature" (1883) under this title, but we believe the papers have not been republished.

J. T. BALCOMB.-Thanks for your specimens. We will bear the matter well in mind.

M. E. POPE.-Many thanks for your kindly interest in the old "SCIENCE-GOSSIP." We wish all our subscribers were as good proselytisers!

C. WILSON (Southport).-The plant is Claytonia perfoliata -a Canadian species, and an excellent salad plant, containing oxalic acid in its leaves.

G. GRIERSON.-Write to Dr. M. C. Cooke, 146 Junction Road, Upper Holloway, London, N.W.

GEO. CAMPBELL.-Apply to the editor of the Geologists' Association, Professor Boulger, 18 Ladbroke Grove, London, W., for the paper on "Agates."

E. BROWNE and others.-Mr. Brunetti's address is 129 Grosvenor Park, Camberwell, S.E.

J. B.-We expect you refer to the late Dr. Lankester's "Uses of Animals to Man" for the paper on Tannin. If so, enquire of Messrs. W. H. Allen, Waterloo Place. You will find good papers on Tannin in the last edition of Professor Johnson's Chemistry of Common Life," edited by Professor Church. W. GYNGELL.-Address, the "American Naturalist," 501 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, for exchange.

W. L. K.-Apply to Mr. King, Sea Horse House, Portland Road, London.

EXCHANGES.

MARINE shells, rubbings of memorial brasses, and curios; what offers? Will send list of either if wished.-Archibald Hy. McBean, S. Denys, Southampton.

WANTED, eggs, in clutches, of rare British birds; also cuckoo's eggs, with full data. Offered, a good exchange in insects, eggs, or shells.-W. K. Mann, Clifton, Bristol.

RARE Scotch and Irish mosses and hepatics offered in exchange for others. Special desiderata, 26, 27, 99, 106, 109, 121, 135, 147, 154, 156, 166, 169, 173, 183, 187.-W. B. Waterfall, Thirlmere, Redland Green, Bristol.

MOSSES and hepatics offered in exchange for slides of same. -W. B. Waterfall, Redland Green, Bristol.

WHAT offers in unmounted micro-material for first-class slides of the following: arranged foraminifera (50 varieties); sections of species of echinoderms (20 varieties); sections of bone and teeth (in Canada balsam), showing the lacunae and canaliculi ;