GEOLOGY.

FISH BEDS.-Fish have been found floating dead in shoals beside submarine volcanoes-killed either by the heated water or by mephitic gases. There are, however, no marks of volcanic activity in connection with the ichthyolite beds. They abound, as has been said, in lime, and the thought has often struck me that calcined lime cast out as ashes from some distant crater, and carried by the winds, might have been the cause of the widely-spread destruction to which their organisms testify. I have seen the fish of a small trouting stream, over which a bridge was in course of building, destroyed in a single hour, for a full mile below the erection, by the few troughfuls of lime that fell into the water when the centring was removed.-Miller's "Old Red Sandstone."

HUMAN REMAINS.-Human bones have been found in the Lelim of the valley of the Rhine, at Engisheim, near Colmar, in a marly deposit, in which the bones of a large stag were also found, with a molar tooth of the mammoth, and a metatarsal bone of a bison. M. Faudel records this in the Comptes Rendus, and concludes that man lived in the valley of the Rhine contemporaneous with the fossil stag, bison, and mammoth, and that the appearance of man in the country would have been previous to certain movements of the earth, which took place after the deposition of the "diluvium," and which have given the ground its present physical configuration.

SUBMARINE ACTION.-In the year 1783 a submarine eruption took place six or eight miles from Reykiavick, which gave birth to a new island a mile in circumference, which, however, the following year again disappeared. A submarine eruption also took place about the same time seventy miles from the same cape, which is said to have thrown up pumice sufficient to cover the sea for space of one hundred and fifty miles around.Daubeny's "Volcanoes."

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ANTHRACITE COAL.-A correspondent of the Times writes that,-"From constant experience of this coal in FURNACES he believes it is capable of being applied as a perfect substitute for smoky bituminous coal in houses." Now as I have had constant experience, for seven years, of Anthracite coal in HOUSES, perhaps the readers of SCIENCE-GOSSIP may like to know how to render this invaluable, smokeless fuel available in their own residences. I used anthracite in every room in the house during the time I lived in South Wales, from the top bedrooms down to the outer kitchens. We resided in the vicinity of anthracite, or, as they are there called, stone-coal mines-the Gwendraeth Works-and had we failed to use the hard coal, must have sent many

miles for soft. All our grates were arranged for it, with fire-brick sides (cheeks) and backs; for there is something in the ordinary iron sides and backs that effectually prevents anthracite fuel from showing to the best advantage. The grand essential is a thorough draught through the fire; and to ensure this we had round holes drilled in the fire-brick back communicating with a chamber, or flue, at the back of the grate, so as to convey the current of air through the fire and up the chimney. Anthracite coal is invaluable for cooking purposes; our English servants were charmed with it,-we never had to complain of smoked viands. Cooks were satisfied with their own efforts in the frying and boiling line, and, better still, we were satisfied with their skill. I strongly advise all married ladies, whose lords and masters are, in servants' phraseology, "very particular on the subject of good dinners (a few men are so perfectly angelic as not to be affected in temper by a badly-dressed dinner) to immediately institute anthracite coal fires in their kitchens. Our housemaids never complained of "the horrid smoke," nor the laundrymaid of those "nasty blacks." An anthracite fire gives out great heat, is clear, smokeless, and healthy All common grates can be fitted with brick backs and cheeks at a very moderate expense. We altered a large kitchen-range so as to burn anthracite effectually.-Helen E. Watney.

A STONE STANDARD.-In Iceland, the marks of Frost are on a vast scale, but they are mingled with the work of Fire. These denuding and upheaving forces are working natural engines-air, water, ice, and steam, side by side,-and their marks are mingled. Marks made by glaciers upon igneous rock are the same as those which are made by land ice, in Norway and Switzerland, on rocks of all kinds; but the chips are different. Here ice-ground glens are partially filled with lava; water-worn boulders, pebbles, and sand, are smothered under sand which fell from the air; great stones have been cast through the air, and rest among glacial rubbish. Snow is often blackened with ashes; ashes are whitewashed with snow; water flows under the lava, and there freezes and forms subterraneous glaciers. Glacier rivers carry fine mud, which glaciers grind; but it is mixed with volcanic dust, sulphur, cinders, sticks, and all things which rain can wash from such a land into the sea. The seabeach is strewed with lava and Arctic shells; American drift timber, mahogany, strange sea-weeds of great size; "horse-eyes" from the West Indies; dead puffins from the Arctic ocean; fish-bones and seals; and sometimes the Arctic current brings an ice-fleet-it may be freighted with stones and mud picked up at Spitzbergen, Jan Mayen, or Greenland. The surface of the land is a stone standard by which to read geological hieroglyphics elsewhere.-"Frost and Fire,"

NOTES AND QUERIES.

POLLEN IN HONEY.-Fig. 15 of your Illustrations in SCIENCE-GOSSIP is evidently the Pollen of "Passiflora,” and 25 that of "Enothera ; " the rest I cannot make out. Your paper is very interesting.W. T., Iliff.

WOODPECKERS' EGGS.—In my cabinet I have two woodpeckers' eggs which, during the last few months, have become thickly speckled with ashcoloured spots. Can any reader inform me of the cause, and how I can remove them? The eggs have been in my cabinet more than two years.-H. Tasker.

FIFTEEN - SPINE STICKLEBACK.-I have made several attempts to keep the fifteen-spined stickleback (Gasterosteus spinachia) in my aquarium, but have always failed to keep it alive for more than a month or so at the most, and even for this short time only in the latter part of spring and beginning of summer. I have never managed to keep it over the winter. I attribute my failure solely to my not knowing the proper food to give them. In the spring and earlier part of summer I used to get a small fly about the windows which they swallowed quite easily, and upon which they seemed to thrive; but as the season advanced these became scarce and latterly disappeared altogether. I then tried them with the common house-fly, which, almost without an exception, they were unable to swallow, although they made great efforts to do so, and gradually they pined away and died. The other fish (Blennius pholis, Cottus bubalis, Gobius, &c.) I fed upon beef which the sticklebacks never attempted to touch; the reason of which I take to be the want of any signs of life in the beef as it fell to the bottom of the tank; so they would not even bite at a fly unless it happened to be making some motion on the surface of the water. Perhaps some reader who has been more successful in keeping them than the subscriber, may be able to say something on the subject.-J. C. H., Glasgow.

UNKNOWN OBJECT.-I should be greatly obliged to any of your readers who would give me information respecting the following beautiful and interesting object, which I had an opportunity of observing in my microscope the summer before last. It was, I suppose, the larva of a fly or beetle; and the breathing organ was probably the part I noticed. The creature was but a small speck on the leaf of Anacharis, on which it quietly rested, looking like a minute slug. Under the microscope it showed a very ugly head. At the tail was a wonderful apparatus, consisting of a number of loops. These were alternately drawn up or down, producing the effect of an ordinary paint brush, at one moment wetted and drawn together, the next showered out and each hair curling back at the tip. It is not easy to describe, but most beautiful to behold. I should be glad to learn what this larva becomes in its perfect state, in the hope of obtaining specimens.-L.S. M., Ryde.

BLACK OR WHITE.-A friend of mine has a hen of the Polish breed, which, six months ago, was of a glossy black colour, but which has undergone a complete change, and is now of a snowy white. This transformation was not done by moulting, but by a gradual change of colour.-H. L., Rose Hill, Old Trafford.

WATERTON'S PROCESS.-Do you know if the process by which Mr. Waterton preserved his natural history collection, is known? From a paper written by Rev. J. G. Wood, in the Intellectual Observer for July, 1863, it seems it was not at that time. If it has since been discovered, and you can give it to the readers of SCIENCE-GOSSIP, you will be conferring a great favour on many, who are disgusted with the old mode of wire and stuffing.-H. M. G.

QUEEN APPLE. The correspondent, E. W., Manchester, in the December number, wishes to know about this fruit. In Disraeli's "Curiosities of Literature (article "Introducers of Exotic Flowers Fruits, &c.") is a quotation from Peacham's "Emblems," "1812

And red queen apple, so envide

Of school boles, passing by the pole;

and in a note it is stated to have been probably named after Queen Elizabeth; and it is added that apples had become red by being grafted on a mulberry stock, known to Pliny. Mr. Disraeli says further that the race is not extinct. The only apple I can hear of approaching the above is a red-fleshed fruit, called hereabouts "red ripe," no doubt well known in the London markets.-W. D., Brenchley.

THE PAPUANS.-Has any reader of S. G. ever noticed the following passage in Captain Cook's account of his first voyage? It seems extraordinary, but from his remarkable truthfulness is probably quite reliable. After saying that Messrs. Banks, De Solander, and others, landed on the coast of New Guinea, near the Cape de la Coltade San Bonaventura, he proceeds :-"After they had advanced about a quarter of a mile from the boat, three Indians rushed out of the wood with a hideous shout, and as they ran towards the English, the foremost threw something out of his hand, which flew on one side of him and burned exactly like gunpowder, though without making any report.

"While the English gentlemen were viewing them, they were shouting defiance, and letting off their fires by four or five at a time. Our people could not imagine what these fires were, or what purpose they were intended to answer. Those who discharged them had in their hands a short piece of stick, which they swung sideways from them, and immediately there issued fire and smoke, exactly resembling those of a musket, and of as short a duration. The men on board the ships who observed this surprising phenomenon were so far deceived by it, as to believe that the Indians had fire-arms. To the persons in the boat it had the appearance of the firing of volleys without a report. Can this be some unknown engine of war of a pyrotechnic character? Have the Dutch, who have a settlement in Papua, or any subsequent navigators, observed the same phenomenon? These are interesting questions, which some one may possibly be able to solve.-F. A. A.

SQUIRRELS. The disease described by C. L. C. as having killed his squirrel is known as the "Rot." It is caused by too moist food. Bread and milk in the shape of "pap" will mostly prove fatal. I was applied to for advice in a similar case by a young lady who had a favourite grey squirrel, whose hind limbs were so paralyzed. I prescribed dry food, in the shape of hemp-seed and gingerbread, which was a perfect cure. When a squirrel dies of the rot the maggots appear externally; and, I presume, are engendered during life. The squirrel may be kept in health on a diet of hemp-seed, varied by a piece of bread dipped in milk only (not soaked), nuts, and green buds. Let him drink his fill of water once daily, and stuff his bed box quite full of nice dry hay, he will then amuse himself by biting it to pieces and making a very cosy nest.-John Hunter, New Malden, Surrey.

SHOOTING RARE BIRDS.-I feel sure that every true naturalist will agree with Mr. Tate in condemning the shameful practice, which appears to be sorely on the increase, of killing every rare bird, which, unfortunately for it, is led towards our shores. It is almost impossible to take up any paper on natural history without meeting with numerous instances. Take, for example, the Waxwing (Bombycilla garrula), which has appeared in great numbers during the few weeks past. Where possible, every flock has been exterminated, and the birds have been sent to the nearest stuffer. In the last number of SCIENCE-GOSSIP there is an account of a country correspondent shooting a female Great-spotted Woodpecker (Picus major). The gentleman who sends the information is not quite sure in his own mind as to how it will be received, for he commences to say, Perhaps you may be interested, &c." (p. 41). How such wanton persecution can in any way be interesting is a mystery to me! It would be very interesting if instead of shooting the birds your correspondents would watch their habits, and give us the particulars; by so doing they would add to our knowledge of ornithology, whilst at the same time they would have the satisfaction of knowing that they had saved the lives of rare visitors. I wish, with Mr. Tate, that this "stupid practice of destroying all our most beautiful birds" could be stopped; but I cannot see how it is to be done, because the temptation of shooting a rare bird to add to a collection is too great to be resisted by many who call themselves naturalists.-Edward Simpson, Chelsea.

FROG IN OOLITE.-In speaking of the discovery of a frog in the oolite, Mr. Simon Hutchinson says: "Personal inquiry can be made by the sceptical, or silence in future will be most becoming." Why should personal inquiry be made? What will it prove more than Munton's letter proves? I suppose no one would care to doubt that he truthfully describes what he saw. But why should Mr. Hutchinson wish to compel people to a belief in his explanation of the phenomenon, or else to silence? One had thought that rational men had given up such bigotry as this. Surely no sane person would now-a-days try to uphold such an absurdity as the existence of a frog in oolite mud. Why, how would salt water agree with him? To say nothing of minor difficulties. If Mr. Hutchinson will take the trouble to examine the stone quarries around Grantham, and especially those at Ancaster, he will find plenty of fissures through which poor froggy might have come to grief in his wooing expedition. I think, sir, this is a much more rational mode of ex

plaining the presence of the "apple in the dumpling" than by supposing the crust to have been raised and baked some hundred thousand years ago.-L.

CONOCHILUS VOLVOX.-Mr. McIntire, in the January number, remarks that the "Conochilus Volvox" will not live in confinement. Knowing this, I was surprised to find that large numbers made their appearance in my aquarium in October, 1865, and continued for nearly two months to the delight of myself and microscopic friends. The aquarium is rectangular, holds about seven gallons of water, and is exposed to a north light. At that time it had six gold fish in it, and the plants were Anacharis alsinastrum, Chara vulgaris, Valisneria spiralis, and a species of rush (I don't know the name). Pump-water was used for filling. Now, in dipping for Conochilus, the most likely place to find them is amongst rushes. Could the rushes in the aquarium have had anything to do with their production in this instance? Through an accident I had last spring to remodel my aquarium, and suppose I did not fulfil the same conditions, as they did not again favour me.-John Davis, Stowmarket.

MICROSCOPIC CAMERA. In vol. ii., p. 233, SCIENCE-GOSSIP, is a description of a "Microscopic Camera Obscura." Whilst waiting for the Prism there mentioned, any one can obtain an excellent result by using a common looking-glass hung inside the box, and made moveable by an attached string passing through a small pulley on the top of the box. After removing the eye-piece and adjusting the glass, so that it may form an angle of 45° with the axis of the microscope, a beautiful image is visible upon the paper underneath, which image is, of course, made to vary in its brilliancy by altering the intensity of the light.-H. W.

OBJECT FOR MICROSCOPE. In the January number J. S. Tute mentions varnish evaporating as an object. Another interesting one is a small quantity of powdered charcoal mixed with a little spirit of wine, and put between two glasses. The regular movement of the charcoal in the current of the evaporating spirit is curious. A bit of chalk or zinc dissolving in weak acid is a capital object for the gas microscope.-E. T. Scott.

DUST ON AQUARIA.-I dare say many of your readers who keep aquaria have been, like myself much troubled by the collection of dust on the surface of the water. This is a fertile source of annoyance, especially in shallow aquaria where everything depends on the clearness of the surface. I have adopted a plan which may not be original, although I have not seen it mentioned anywhere. It is to take a small gallipot, and to hold it just below the surface of the water. In the other hand I hold a funnel with a piece of rag in it, into which I throw the contents of the gallipot as often as it fills. This I find speedily and effectually skims off all the dust and leaves the water as clear as a looking-glass.— George Gatehouse.

BARN-RAT AND MARSH-WORM.-Have any of your correspondents seen the barn-rat feeding on the marsh-worm (Lumbricus minor)? Last summer I saw several in the day-time feeding on this worm, which they gathered up in their paws and eat like a squirrel, sitting up on their hind-quarters. They often went below the surface of the water whilst seeking for the worm.-H. Smith.

A BOY CHARMED BY SERPENTS.-The Maysville (Kentucky) Eagle says that a boy, four or five years of age, in Bracken county, was in the habit, during the whole of last summer, of going out in the woods near his home to play with his "pretty things," as he called them. After much persuasion one day, his mother was induced to follow him to his playgrounds to see what attracted him so much, when, to her horror, she discovered her little darling playing with a trio of huge black snakes, wholly unconscious of his peril. The boy was completely fascinated, and would advance and retreat, and sport and dally with his hideous comrades as if he were in the charmed circle of his brothers and sisters. The mother, in terror, ran to the house crying for help, when the father of the child rushed to the rescue of the boy, and, after some difficulty, killed the snakes. Wonderful to relate-and we have this information from a gentleman of unquestionable veracity-the little boy soon took to his bed, from which he never arose. He pined away and died, an early victim of the fascination of the serpents.-New York Times. Can the above be true?-J. B.

TWIN TROUT.-I paid a visit the other day to Mr. King, of Portland Road, whose name is so well known to the public for his exertions in connection with the recent calamity in Regent's Park. He has just now-or had when I called-a curious lusus naturæ, a sort of Siamese twin trout, hatched on the premises. This extraordinary joint-stock fish (limited) finds it as difficult to get on, apparently, as some of his brother Co.'s. There are two distinct bodies, but only one tail; and as the two bodies don't always take the same thing into their respective heads, the common tail has its work cut out to steer them. I have never heard of a case of the sort before. I also saw the curious parasites, found in the gills of a salmon, which were recently exhibited at the meeting of the Quekett Club. Mr. King is an ardent naturalist, and has devised a scheme for the employment and amusement of the young, which I for one should be glad to see taking the place of purposeless postage-stamp collecting. He suggests that schools, or the young people of various neighbourhoods collectively, should make gatherings (in duplicate) of the natural objects of their districts. A central bureau should be established, where prizes would be given for the best collections, and where exchanges might be effected. By these means, the study of natural history would be promoted, and museums established in various parts; not to mention other advantages. The idea seems to me a very good one.-Town Talk, in "Fun,” Feb. 9.

SHELL MONEY. -It is somewhat curious, that these shells (Entalis sp.) should have been employed as money by the Indians of N.W. America, that is, by the native tribes inhabiting Vancouver's Island, Queen Charlotte's Island, and the mainland coast from the straits of Fuca to Sitka. Since the introduction of blankets by the Hudson's Bay Company, the use of these shells, as a medium of purchase, has to a great extent died out, the blankets having become the money, as it were, or the means by which everything is now reckoned and paid for by the savage. A slave, a canoe, or a squaw, is worth in these days so many blankets; but it used to be so many strings of Dentalia. In the interior, east of the Cascade Mountains, the beaver-skin is the article by which everything is reckoned, in fact, the money of the inland Indian.-J. K. Lord, F.Z.S.

FREDERICK J. FOOT.-Those of our readers who remember the interesting chapter on Sea-Anemones (SCIENCE-GOSSIP, vol. i. p. 155), by F. J. Foot, M.A., will regret to learn from an obituary in the Geological Magazine for February, that on the evening of the 17th January a number of people were skating upon the ice of Lough Kay, near Boyle, in Ireland. Two of them having ventured upon a weak portion of the ice, it gave way, and they fell into the lake. Seeing their extreme danger, Mr. Foot came to their assistance, and in a noble effort to save their lives, lost his own. They were both rescued, but he was drowned. Mr. Foot was attached to the Irish Branch of the Geological Survey, and though only thirty-six years of age, had communicated many useful and interesting papers to the Natural History Society of Dublin, on botany and zoology, as well as written several geological notices.

BIRDS BREEDING IN CONFINEMENT.-Can any of your readers give me any information so that I may get my birds to breed? I have pairs of the following birds:-Siskin, Snow Bunting, Bullfinch, Goldfinch, Brown Linnet, Lesser Redpole, and Canary. I have them in a room, and feed them on hemp, canary and rape-seeds, and in summer I supply them plentifully with green food, but for all that I cannot get them to build; the canary is the only pair that breed. If I could get any hints that would tend towards inducing them to breed, I should be very glad. They seem to be very healthy and tame, and very seldom fly against the netting or the window.-A. Pickard.

AQUARIUM PEST.-Last year some of your correspondents mentioned, under this name, the nests of the fresh water snails that are so apt to appear on the sides of an aquarium; others said there was no need to remove them, as they were greedily devoured" by the fish. My children have a freshwater aquarium, on the sides of which upwards of 100 of these nests have appeared within the last six weeks. So far from being “greedily devoured," not one has been touched either by fish, newts, or beetles; every tiny egg, moreover, contains a black spot, which must be the embryo snail. Why, then, do they never hatch? Some of them have been there more than a month; and last summer, being curious to see what would come from them, we removed from the aquarium some aquatic plants covered with them, and kept them for many weeks in a separate glass jar, with no living creatures to molest them. If they are the eggs of (the snail, why does nothing come from them ?L. H. F.

AMONG WASPS. - One day last autumn I observed a small cluster of wasps on the ground, busily engaged in moving round some object in their centre. After a few moments' observation, their movements allowed me to discover that the object of their assiduous attentions was a queen wasp, which they were engaged in attacking, exactly in the same manner as the working bees do the drones, when about to lay up their winter stores. In both cases they attempt to tear or destroy the wing, especially at its attachment to the body, with their mandibles. The issue of the assault I cannot record, as the whole combatants soon took flight. I could only observe that, like the drones, the queen wasp's defence seemed very languid. Are these struggles usual ?—G. A. W.

BLOOD BEETLE.-In your interesting periodical for this month appears a short paper signed "Hy Ullyett," on the natural history of the "Blood Beetle." From his description I imagine it to be that kind known more generally as the "Oil Beetle," numbers of which may be found in most hedgerows in the early months of spring. The figure he gives appears to be a male insect, the broad tarsi of which are not, as he supposes, for merely holding on to vegetation, but chiefly for the fulfilment of higher duties belonging to its sex. The female has the tarsi slender and narrow an example is given in a woodcut, indifferently executed, in Wood's Common Objects of the Country," Plate J., fig. 11. It is a matter of regret to me, and perhaps to others, that in Rye's "British Beetles " many of the most familiar, and by no means least interesting, varieties are not figured.-J. Hawkes, M.D.

LEFT NO ADDRESS.-In your last number, E. A. inquires the address of W. Winter, late of Mulbarton. Like E. A., I was induced to subscribe for entomological specimens, and not having heard from Winter, I wrote to a gentleman in Suffolk named by him as a reference. From this gentleman, I learn that Winter left his home last spring, ostensibly to go to London, since which time he has not been heard of. He left behind him his books and instruments, a very few debts, and a wife and family, who have since been obliged by distress to have recourse to parish relief. I am informed that Winter, who was a parochial schoolmaster, and always bore a high character for honesty and integrity, had up to this time always fulfilled his engagements. If his friend H. Bales be likewise

non est inventus," I fear the case looks suspicious; but any how, the wife and children are the greatest sufferers. I have sent them a trifling help, and if any charitably disposed reader will give them a few stamps, I shall have pleasure in forwarding the contribution.-H. W. Livett, M.D., Wells, Somerset.

We are sorry to add to the above that, from letters which we have received, we are in a position to state that Winter's engagements for 1863-4 are some of them still unfulfilled, as well as those of last year.-Ed.

BULBUL OF THE EAST.-In reply to S. M. P., there are several Asiatic birds known by the name of " Bulbul." Pycnonotus pygaus is the Bulbul of Hamilton, and Pycnonotus hæmorrhous is the Bulbul of Jerdon. Another species is called the Hill bush Bulbul, and another the yellow Bulbul. Phyllornis Jerdoni is the common green Bulbul, and a species of thrush (Merula Boulboul) is sometimes called Bulbul. The name probably belongs more strictly to one of the first two species above named.

ORCHIL WEED.-The dyer's lichen was first exported from the islands of the Archipelago to Venice, Genoa, France, and England, for the use of the dyers. Towards the commencement of the last century it was discovered in the Canary Islands, and was soon placed among the regalia of the Spanish Crown. This excited the attention of the Portuguese, who collected it without restriction in the Cape de Verd Islands, Madeira, Porto Santo, and the Azores. In the year 1730 the Jesuits asked of King John V. the privilege of collecting the Hervinha secca; but the Crown took advantage into its own hands, and farmed the right of collecting it. At a later period the lichen was ceded to the mercantile company of

Gram Pará and Maranhão; and lastly, in the year 1790, the government again took this branch of commerce under its own care, because it had declined considerably under the bad management of the company.-Spix and Martius' Travels.

NAPOLEON'S WILLOW.-Having been frequently asked the history and age of the tree called Napoleon's Willow, which grows in the Royal Botanic Garden at Kew, I send you the following account of it. Soon after the death of Napoleon I, in 1821, Thomas Fraser, then a young gardener at Kew, was engaged to proceed to St. Helena, for the purpose of growing vegetables to supply the East India Company's homeward-bound ships that touched at that island. He returned in 1825, bringing with him Tree Ferns and other interesting plants of the island, and amongst them a twig of the willowtree which grew over the tomb of Napoleon. This twig on arrival was found to have become decayed at the lower part, but the upper portion, which was only a few inches in length, being green and fresh, I placed it under a bell-glass as a cutting, where it soon rooted and became an established plant. A paragraph having appeared in the newspapers announcing the fact that a plant had been received at Kew from Napoleon's tomb, and the far-famed names Bonaparte and Waterloo being still fresh in the public mind, many visitors came to see it, especially on Sundays;" and on one Sunday, before the hour for opening the Gardens, the crowd was so great, that by its pressure the bolts of the gate gave way, and those who were foremost fell, others falling over them, so great was the eagerness evinced to get a sight of this willow. In 1827 the tree was planted where it now stands, near the walk, which was a continuation from the then public entrance, the willow in question being the first conspicuous object seen on entering the garden. For the first twenty years of its growth it had the advantage of being sheltered by a high trellis fence and shrubbery, which passed near it. It is now forty years old, and although it grows in dry, light soil, it has attained the height of 40 feet, the spread of its branches being 44 feet, the circumference of the trunk near the ground 8 feet, and its height 5 feet, at which point it divides into three main stems. Coming from St. Helena, it was at first thought to be a distinct species, but it soon became evident that it was the common Salix babylonica.-J. Smith, Gard. Chron., Feb. 2, 1867.

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WEST-INDIAN TICKS.-Mr. Sells has stated that in Jamaica dogs as well as cattle and horses are very subject to the attacks of ticks of large size, and which are occasionally so injurious to the latter as to cause their ears to drop down without the horses having the power of raising them again; indeed it is a regular custom once a week, whilst the horses are out at grass, for them to be driven home to be "licked," the parts infested being rubbed over with lamp oil, no other remedy having been discovered. Journ. of Proc. Ent. Soc., vol. i., p. lxviii.

BEDEGUAR.-H. W. K. desires to be informed of the origin and meaning of Bedeguar, as applied to the mossy galls of the wild rose.

MALE COCKROACH.-Can any of your correspondents tell me the use of wings to the male cockroach? for I have never seen or heard of it flying. -E. F. B.