near Eastbourne. They are patinated and white, resembling the ordinary fractured flints found on the downs. No text-book, or treatise on flint implements appears to mention flint implements as found in abundance on the downs, and they are dissimilar to those, few and far between, found on the Wiltshire downs. It is just possible that a record of these may be of public interest, and I am anxious to rescue the history and origin of this collection from oblivion. I shall be grateful for any notes or references on the subject.-A. S. Eve, Marlborough College.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

PIN-HOLE PHOTOGRAPHY. In the excellent "Dictionary of Photography" now being weekly published in the "Amateur Photographer," Mr. E. J. Wall says: "Of late years the possibility of taking passable negatives without the use of an ordinary camera and lens has become an established fact. For this purpose any rectangular box which is absolutely light-tight will do. In one end make a minute hole with the point of a needle, and at the other end place the sensitive plate, keeping it in its place by means of a clip or other simple arrangement. A prolonged exposure is required about twenty or thirty times the ordinary one, for any given subject. No focussing is required, as the image is always fairly sharp, no matter what distance the plate is from the hole. The larger the plate the wider the angle, and the greater the distance, the larger the image. As an experiment it should be tried by every amateur, as the materials are always at his command in the shape of an empty plate-box."

SACCHARINE.-Replying to the query of Rev. H. Whittaker in July issue: Roughly speaking, diabetes is a form of disease by which all foods are turned into a sugar, and passed away without nourishing the body. The great effort of the physician is therefore to provide food for the patient having no sugar in it to aggravate the complaint. Saccharine is merely a sweet taste, being a mineral product, it could not assimilate, and was believed to pass out of the body unchanged. This view has now been challenged by some leading French scientists, who assert that when it does not assimilate, it also does not pass away, but remains in the body to accumulate, in which case it would not be desirable to use it for any purpose whatever. I may further mention that Government prohibit its use for brewing, and Somerset House authorities have just announced their success in finding a good test for detecting its presence.-G. H. Wicks, Bristol.

WHAT INSECT ?-Will any reader of SCIENCEGOSSIP tell me the name of a dipterous insect, about as large as a blue-bottle fly, wings transparent, with curious clouded appearance, in irregular patches of smoke colour, eyes of splendid colour, red, yellow, and green, in varied lights.-C. P.

TENNYSON'S NATURAL HISTORY.-In SCIENCEGOSSIP for June, page 139, E. H. V. inquires whether snipe hum? In dear old Gilbert White's Natural History of Selborne (letter to Thos. Pennant, of August 4th, 1767), the following passage occurs: "Numbers of snipes breed every summer in some moory ground on the verge of this parish. It is very

17

amusing to see the cock bird on wing at that time, and to hear his piping and humming notes." Unfortunately I have no personal knowledge which would help in answering E. H. V.'s query; and I shot, for snipe shooting is common out here where the rice-swamps which are within very easy distance of this city, afford splendid shooting. Tennyson may, like Gilbert White, have heard the humming notes of the snipe. I know that whenever wild birds pass over this city at night, in the migrating season, their shrill notes among the clouds always recall Tennyson's line about the "birds that change their seasons in the night." I think his description of a tropical island, "the mountain wooded to the peak,' and so on, in "Enoch Arden," is wonderfully accurate, and in its own line usurpassed in poetry. By the way, some of our water birds, snipe, &c., are said to come to the swamps in Lower Bengal from Thibet, and to do the long journey in a single night. I have also heard that for two or three seasons, a waterbird only found in Central Asia, visited one particular pond in our Zoological Garden. It came during our cold weather, and stayed only a few days. Whether it was the same bird which came year after year, I do not know; but the presumption seems to have been that it was. This is a very gossiping note, but scientific gossip is admissible in your columns !— W. J. Simmons, Calcutta.

RUDIMENTS.-I notice that your correspondent challenges a defence of the word rudimentary. I should be sorry to be understood as speaking ex cathedra, but having given some little passing attention to the comparative anatomy of the arthropods, and observing that certain difficulties which possibly predonderate with your lady writer lie without the department of human anatomy, I must in courtesy be forgiven if, as a matter of feeling, I beg personally to differ as regards any lachrymose conclusions, and I sincerely trust any remarks of mine may be as kindly received as they are indeed conceived. The word rudimentary, according to Dr. William Smith, the classical lexicographer, is derived from the Latin adjective rudis, in a natural state, not improved by art, hence unwrought, untilled, unformed, rough, raw, wild; and in the present sense I conclude unspecialised; but let us hear Dr. Darwin himself, who thus writes to Sir Charles Lyell from Ilkey, Yorkshire, under date of the eleventh of October, 1859 ("Life and Letters," vol. ii. pp. 213-14). the theory of Natural Selection there is a wide distinction between rudimentary organs and what you call germs of organs, and what I call in my bigger book

"On

nascent' organs An organ should not be called rudimentary unless it be useless-as teeth which never cut through the gums-the papillæ, representing the pistil in male flowers, wing of Apteryx, or better, the little wings under soldered elytra. These organs are now plainly useless, and à fortiori, would be useless in a less developed state. Natural Selection acts exclusively by preserving successive slight, useful modifications. Hence Natural Selection cannot possibly make a useless or rudimentary organ. Such organs are solely due to inheritance (as explained in my discussion), and plainly bespeak an ancestor having the organ in a useful condition. They may be, and often have been, worked in for other purposes, and then they are only rudimentary for the original function, which is sometimes plainly apparent." If the biography of genius affords any proof that form and comeliness is indicative of inward enlightenment, I for one should hail with pleasure the future development, but as regards naturalists it is not always thus. In the case of my deceased friend

Mr. Henry Waring Kidd, who wrote the article on Fasciated Stems in SCIENCE-GOSSIP (vol. xix. pp. 196198), these perfections never appeared at all. The article was written by the nurse from dictation, and as for his personal appearance, as his own relatives said, it would frighten any lady. He was a confirmed paralytic, hopped like the kangaroo and gesticulated like the baboon, and had no acuteness of either sight or hearing, I think; and yet had he been alive, I am almost sure he would have answered the query in SCIENCE-GOSSIP in respect to the cherry-galls on ground ivy, which are possibly those of Cecidomyia bursaria (Entomologist's Annual for 1872). He came however of a talented family.-A. H. Swinton.

FIELD VOLE.-This animal occasionally nests in crannies and holes of tree roots, and about hedgebottoms, but the most common locality in my experience is a few inches below the surface in cornfields, &c. The occurrence described by Mr. Head can scarcely be called unusual.-7. A. Wheldon.

GALLS ON GROUND IVY.-If not too late, I should like to see some of the galls mentioned by F. H. W. (p. 213); I am forming a collection of galls for my museum, and shall always be glad to have galls of any kind.-S. L. Mosley, Beaumont Park Museum, Huddersfield.

NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.

now

TO CORRESPONDENTS AND EXCHANGERS.-As we 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.

F. W. H.-Get Staveley's "British Insects." We know of no popular elementary treatise on "Acari." See Mr. George's papers on the subject in past vols. of SCIENCE-GOSSIP (illustrated). For Diptera, consult the British Museum Catalogues, also numerous papers (illustrated) in past vols. of SCIENCEGossip.

WM. R.-"The Naturalist" is the accredited monthly journal of natural history for the north of England, and is published monthly at Sunny Bank, Leeds, price (with postage) 7d.

W. A. L.-We are open to accept good papers on the subject you mention.

A. BATES.-Your specimen is the female of the great sawfly (Sirex gigas).

E. C. R.-You cannot do better than procure Sowerby's "Grasses," with coloured plate of every species. Stark's "British Mosses" would be the best for you.

H. SMITH.-See papers by the late Mr. J. F. Robinson on "Notes for Science Classes," as to cutting and mounting botanical objects, in SCIENCE-GOSSIP for 1883.

T. MILLIE.-You can learn very much of astronomy indeed without teacher. Get "Planetary and Stellar Studies," by J. E. Gore (London: Roper and Drowley), just published; or any of Mr. Proctor's works, star maps, &c.

J. A. HOGG.-The growth you enclosed is the gall of species of Cecidomyia.

C. HARRIS.-You cannot do better than take in the shilling parts of the work now being issued by Messrs. Gurney and Jackson (successors to Mr. Van Voorst), written by Mr. Howard Saunders. It contains illustrations of nearly every British species, with all the details you require.

L. KITCHING.-The fungus sent us is a species of the "Birds' Nest fungus" (Nidularia).

L. ALLEN.-We received your letter, but there was no plant -enclosed.

G. O. 'DAY.-Stainton's "Manual of the Sineina," 2 vols., is the best yet out. We are not aware that Newman ever published on the micro-lepidoptera, beyond what you find in his "Moths."

T. F. HALL.-Mr. J. Sinel, St. Helier's, Jersey, would doubtless be able to help you to the special kind of knowledge you require.

EXCHANGES.

DRAGONFLIES wanted, fresh and unset preferred. Lepidoptera given in exchange.-W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood, Birmingham.

EUROPEAN butterflies wanted. British lepidoptera in return. -W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood, Birmingham. OFFERED.-Chalk and Thanet sand fossils. Wanted.Micro apparatus or material, slips preferred.-Chas. L. Neil, Hamilton House, Goldsmith Gardens, Acton.

DEVONIAN Corals (polished sections), unnamed. What offers in micro apparatus?-Chas. L. Neil, Hamilton House, Acton. FOR exchange.-Micro slides and botanical objects. Wanted, natural history books, micro slides, or apparatus.-Ernest 0. Meyers, Richmond House, Hounslow, W.

Exchange

WANTED, "Carpenter on the Microscope." micro slides, land and freshwater shells, &c.-Ernest Ö. Meyers, Richmond House, Hounslow, W.

EXCHANGE.-Bicycle, rear-driving safety, Premier pattern, plated parts, balls, only once ridden. Offers, or would exchange for good double tricycle.-Chas. L. Neil, Hamilton House, Acton, W.

OFFERED." British Association Handbook," Manchester (Nat. Hist. Antiquities and Industries), pp. 108. Exchange for books, journals, or first-class slides (animal).-G. H. Bryan, Chaucer Road, Cambridge.

WILL exchange "British Medical Journal," 5 vols. unbound, from June 1883 to Dec. 1885, for books or periodicals, micro or nat. hist. apparatus, or offers.-G. H. Bryan, Chaucer Road, Cambridge.

MARINE algæ from the N.E. coast of Scotland, and N.W. coast of Ireland, in exchange for other marine algæ, English or foreign, mosses, lichens, or flowering plants.-E. M. Holmes, Bradbourne Dene, Sevenoaks.

DUPLICATES.-A. adippe, A. euphrosyne, A. selene, G. rhamni, L. sinapis, H. thalassina, L. argiolus, T. rubi, &c. Desiderata, dragonflies.-W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood, Birmingham.

DUPLICATES.-Helix virgata and H. caperata from Llandudno, Calopteryx splendens, C. virgo, and other dragonflies. Desiderata, dragonflies.-W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood, Birmingham.

DRAGONFLIES wanted from all parts of the British Isles, fresh and unset preferred. Natural history books and specimens offered in exchange.-W. Harcourt Bath, Ladywood, Birmingham.

OFFERED, gratis, to first applicant requiring same for school museum, or similar object, a box of fossils and minerals (about cwt.), a few hundred British, and a few dozen foreign shells. Recipient to pay carriage.-J. Sinel, Cleveland Road, Jersey. WANTED, to exchange British plants for herbarium. Offered, rare duplicates, and a small collection of British lichens named and collected by the late Wm. Gardiner, of Dundee. Lists exchanged.-F. B. Webb, Church Terrace, Cheadle, Stafford

shire.

WILL exchange Liassic fossils for British birds' eggs.W. D. Carr, Lincoln.

Trigonia pulchella from upper lias, in exchange for other British trigoniæ.-W. D. Carr, Lincoln.

WANTED, plants from the west and south of India. Send lists to-E. de C. Crowcombe, Beckenham, Kent.

LANTERN slides (photo micrographs) of insect, botanical, and geological subjects, diatoms, &c., in exchange for micro slides, &c.-W. D. Stewart, 2 Gilmore Terrace, Edinburgh. WILL exchange vol. i. of "Science for All," bound, good as new, for any of Darwin's works, or other science books.W. E. Rider, Parker Street, Cambridge.

SHELLS: H. virgata and var. submaritima, H. pisana ; desiderata very numerous. Land, freshwater, and marine shells duplicates the following. Eggs: partridge, magpie, rook, robin, willow warbler, whitethroat, missel thrush; desiderata very numerous. Insects: duplicates, amongst which are as follows, lonicera bred, segetum, festiva, Brunnæ, and many others; desiderata very numerous, especially butterflies and bombyces.-N. Hewett, 26 Clarence Street, York.

FOR exchange.-Foreign marine, land and freshwater shells, British birds' skins and eggs. Wanted.-Eggs and nests, foreign shells, British beetles, natural history books and pamphlets.-J. T. T. Reed, Ryhope, Sunderland.

NORTH American land shells in exchange for any British land and marine shells not in my collection.-Thos. W. Reader, 171 Hemingford Road, London, N.

GOOD foreign stamps offered for shells, fossils, or micro slides.-Thos. W. Reader, 171 Hemingford Road, London, N. To egg collectors.-Will exchange a few puffins' eggs, with full data and side-blown, for others similarly blown.-D. Dennett, 13 Fernbank Road, Bradford, Yorks.

FOR leaves of Deutzia scabra, enclose stamped envelope; others if good material enclosed.-Dr. Martin, New Brompton. P. glaber, Bul. obscurus, V. piscinalis, H. arbustorum, in exchange for other British land and freshwater or marine shells. -W. Dean, 50 Canning Street, Stoneyholme, Burnley, Lancs. AMMONITES, belemnites and other cephalopods wanted in exchange for fossils, shells, rocks, minerals, &c.-John Hawell, M.A., Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage, Northallerton.

FOSSILS from magnesian limestone, lias, &c., offered in exchange for fossils, shells, &c.-John Hawell, M.A., Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage, Northallerton.

Helix fusca and numerous other British shells offered in exchange for other shells, fossils, &c.-John Hawell, M.A., Ingleby Greenhow Vicarage, Northallerton.

I SHOULD like to correspond with naturalists in any part of the world, and especially in S. Africa, S. America, and Australia.-W. M. Roberts, F.Sc. S., Abergynolwyn, R.S.O., Merionethshire, N.W.

PRITCHARD'S "Infusoria," 1861, Ralfs' "Desmidiæ," 1848, Cooke's "Freshwater Algae," 1882, Gosse's "Tenby," student's microscope, by Watson & Sons, condenser, live cage, &c. Exchange for books with illustrations by Cruikshank, Rowlandson, Leech, Alken, Phiz, sporting books, early editions of Dickens, "Titmarsh," and other popular authors. Lists invited.-F. W. N., 72 Victoria Road, Great Yarmouth.

WILL exchange clutches of coot, moor hen, great blackbacked, lesser black-backed, herring, and common gulls, kittiwake, great skua, curlew, lapwing, ringed-plover, snipe, missel thrush, common, Arctic, sooty and Rüppell's ferns, mute swan, guillemot, razor bill, ringed guillemot, and puffins, for clutches of other species.-Commander Young, R.Ñ., Rodwell, Weymouth.

WANTED, a bit of fresh stem of Euphorbia splendens; vege table preparations offered in exchange.-Walter White, Litcham, Swaffham.

SOME of the best varieties of cerei, phyllocacti (various colours), stapelias, &c., in exchange for shells, cool greenhouse orchids, or offers.-E. R. F., 82 Abbey Street, Faversham. WANTED, to exchange plants for herbarium. Lists exchanged.-E. C. Robinson, 46 Fishergate, Preston, Lancs. I SHALL be glad to exchange land, freshwater, or marine shells, brass rubbings or curios.-Archibald Hy. McBean, S. Denys, Southampton.

PITCHSTONE and spherulite from Arran, in exchange for fossils or minerals.-E. Carrick, Sharon Street, Dalry, Ayrshire, N.B.

BEAUTIFULLY preserved sea-urchins (with or without spines), in exchange for British land, freshwater and marine shells, or insects.-T. W. Paterson, 18 Polwarth Crescent, Edinburgh. WILL exchange British and foreign marine mollusca for fossils from Norwich, crag or pleistocene deposits.-W. A. Loydell, 20 Stanley Gardens, The Vale, Acton.

OFFERED."The Naturalist," Hobkirk and Porritts' series, Nos. 1-4, 6-13, 49-84. Wanted.-Land and freshwater shells, or eggs of British birds in clutches.-Chas. Oldham, Ashtonon-Mersey, Manchester.

FOR exchange.-Carrion crows, rooks, magpies, black head gulls, kittiwakes, puffins, guillemots, razor bills, jackdaws, willow warblers, hedge warblers, moor hens, partridges, ring doves, whitethroat, one Yorkshire leal, one sparrow hawk, two long-eared owls, &c.; some of above in clutches if required. Send lists of duplicates and desiderata to-E. G. Potter, 19 Price Street, York.

DUPLICATES.-Euonymella, psi, caia, grossulariata, salicis, pallens, ova of dispar. Desiderata very numerous.-F. W. Paple, 62 Waterloo Street, Bolton.

DUPLICATES, L. C., 8th ed.-5c, 27, 39, 40, 41, 64, 79, 81, 82, 85, 91, 137, 166, 176, 234, var. Floydii, 249, 273, 291, 317, 335, 336, 353, 3566, 372, 479, 494, 505, 5145, 5147, 543, 639, 680, 692, 774, 799, 808, 812, 859, 863, 865, 901, 910, 940, 944, 954, 966, 973, 1043, 1077, 1109, 1126, 1164, 1191, 1192, 1196, 1224, 1227, 1230, 1270, 1335, 1344, 1346, 1394, 1421, 1475, 1545, 1550, 1561, 1563, 1617.-A. Wheldon, Chemist, York.

IN exchange for six slides I will send forty varieties of animal hair.-Arthur H. Williams, Hythe.

WANTED, foreign butterflies or moths, either set or in papers; exchange duplicates of same, or fossils, shells or coins. -F. Stanley, 6 Clifton Gardens, Margate.

WANTED.-Z. glaber, H. revelata, obvoluta, P. secale, A. lineata, B. perversa, U. tumidus, P. lineatus, glaber, L. glutinosa, &c., in exchange for other land and freshwater shells.-T. A. Lofthouse, 67 Grange Road, Middlesbro'. WANTED, pupa or imagines of British or foreign lepidoptera ; will give shells, &c., in exchange.-T. A. Lofthouse, Grange Road, Middlesbro'.

LIASSIC and magnesian limestone fossils offered in exchange for mountain limestone fossils.-John Hawell, M.A., Ingleby Vicarage, Northallerton.

BRITISH and foreign ammonites wanted. Exchange fossils, &c.-John Hawell, M.A., Ingleby Vicarage, Northallerton. WILL exchange Humboldt's Travels in South America (new), published by Bohn, for good copy of Carpenter on the "Microscope and its Revelations."-Francis Lannin, 1 Marlborough Terrace, Londonderry.

WILL exchange "Nature," bound volumes 23 and 24, or 25

and 26, in splendid condition, for Davis's "Practical Microscopy, in good condition.-J. Hunter, Sea View, Buncranna, co. Donegal.

WANTED. Varieties of Helix rotundata, Helix hispida, except subrufa, Limnea palustris, and Pupa ringens. Offered. -Pupa secale, Helix rupestris, and Carychium minimum.— Miss Eyre, Swarraton Rectory, Alresford, Hants.

I HAVE a number of spare plates (coloured), as issued in my "British Birds," suitable for framing, which I should be glad to exchange for birds' eggs, or insects, British or foreign.S. L. Mosley, Beaumont Park Museum, Huddersfield.

WANTED, to correspond with collector who could supply Ophiocoma filiformis, O. bellis, U. violacea, U. hispida, Echinus lividus, E. neglectus, E. placenta, Brissus lyrifer, &c.-C. Jefferys, Warren Street, Tenby.

Helix obovulata, Bulimus montanus, Pupa ringens, Testacella, both species, and Succinea oblonga wanted. State return required.-C. Jefferys, Warren Street, Tenby.

State

Lutraria oblonga, Solen pellucidus, Ianthina rotundata, Ovula patula, Solecurtus antiquatus, &c., wanted. returns required.-C. Jefferys, Warren Street, Tenby. DUPLICATES.-Andrena fasciata, &, Nomada borealis, Q, &c. Wanted, rare and local aculeate, Hymenoptera.-G. E. Frisby, 6 Church Street, Maidstone.

WANTED, Copy of Tate's "British Mollusks" (coloured plates), and copy of each of the 1875 and 1876 "Botanical Record Club" Reports.-W. Whitwell, 4 Thurleigh Road, Balham, S. W.

WILL exchange "An Arrangement of British Plants," sixth edition, 4 vols. (illustrated), by Withering, for a turntable, or illustrated books on British land and freshwater shells, or offers.-J. B. Beckett, Trinity Place, Friars Lane, Great Yarmouth.

WHAT offers for a collection of British marine, land and freshwater shells, named and localised?-J. B. Beckett, Trinity Place, Friars Lane, Great Yarmouth.

WILL exchange last year's SCIENCE-GOSSIP (December number missing) for fishing tackle.-Arthur Patterson, Yarmouth.

WANTED, a few hymn books, in fair condition, containing psalms and hymns with supplement, or otherwise, prepared for the use of the Baptist denomination. Will give British or foreign shells, fossils or minerals, or polished corals, Devonian specimens.-A. J. K. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank Street, Teign

mouth.

WANTED, Wood's "Index Testaceologicus," complete. Will give a rare exchange in fossils, minerals, British and foreign shells, polished specimens of the Devonian corals and sponges (fine sorts), sections of corals for mounting (some very rare sorts).-A. J. K. Sclater, M.C.S., 23 Bank Street, Teignmouth.

BOOKS, ETC., RECEIVED.

"Planetary and Stellar Student," by J. E. Gore (London: Roper and Drowley).-" Entomology for Beginners," by Dr. A. S. Packard (New York: Henry Holl & Co.).-"The Geological History of the British Islands," by A. Jukes-Browne (London: Longmans). -"The Asclepiad.". -"The Microscope."-"Scientific News."-" Book Chat."-"The Amateur Photographer."-"The Garner."-"The Naturalist."-"The Botanical Gazette."-" Journal of the New York Microscopical Society."-"Belgravia."-"The Gentleman's Magazine.""American Monthly Microscopical Journal."-"The Essex Naturalist."-"The Midland Naturalist."-"Feuilles des Jeunes Naturalistes."-" The American Naturalist.”—“ 'Journal of Microscopy and Nat. Science."-"Scientific News ""Wesley Naturalist."-" Victorian Naturalist."-"Journal of

Conchology.""-"Cassell's Technical Educator."- "The Speaking Parrots" (part 5).-" Research,"-" British Dogs," by Hugh Dalzell (parts 22 and 23).-"Proceedings Bristol Naturalists' Society." -"Trans. Penzance Nat. Hist. Soc." -"Proceedings S. London Entomol. and Nat. Hist. Soc."Trans. Hertfordshire Nat. Hist. Soc."-"Third Report, City of London Coll. Sci. Soc.," &c. &c.

COMMUNICATIONS RECEIVED UP TO THE 13TH ULT. FROM: C. P.-A. C. Y.-W. H. M.-B. M. C. B.-Ă. M.-M. C. L. -J. N.-W. H. B.-E. M. H.-G. H. B.-L. K.—J. B.— S. K. S.-W. J. S.-G. E. H.-W. L. W. B.-C. H.K. L. D.-F. W. F.-E. E. L.-L. A.-W. L. W. E.S. L. M.-G. O. D.-F. N.-W. W.-R. W. C.-G. E. F.F. L.-A. J. K. S.-E. H.-H. A. F.-P. H. M.-C. J.J. R. W.-J. S.-C. K.-J. C.-J. H.-W. D. S.-E. C. Č.R. H. R.-F. B. W.-G. W. R.-W. D. C.-S. W. R.J. T. R.-F. W. A.-D. W. B.-J. I. N.-A. A.-W. H.W. E. R.-J. W.-S. L. M.-W. O.-C. A. W.-J. H.W. M. R.-F. E. Z.-W. D.-W. M. W.-J. B. Y.-F. W. H. -A. W. S.-H. S.-E. G. P.-F. W. P.-F. W. P.-E. C. A. L.-A. H. M. B.-E. C. R.-W. H. W.-I. A. W.W. W.-W. A. S.-C. O.-E. S.-E. R. F.-M. B. B.F. W. N.-A. G. T.-J. A. H.-T. A. L.-A. H. W.-A. S. E. -L. F.-F. S.-H. W. B.-J. S.-C. D. B.-J. H.-J. M.F. L.-T. F. H.-C. P.-H. L.-G. F.-R. S.-J. H.J. H. W., &c. &c.

I instanced the common scarlet poppy, and the two periwinkles as very conspicuous red and blue flowers upon which I had never, or scarcely ever, observed bees. Mr. Tansley cites Hermann Müller to show that the former is visited by seven species of bees, the smaller periwinkle by the same number, and the larger periwinkle by one. I willingly accept these statements as facts. At the same time, I must put in the caution, that such statements as to the number of species of bees which have been noted as visiting particular flowers is apt to be misleading, if not carefully considered.

It is not the number of species visiting a flower, but the absolute number of blossoms visited, and thus receiving the benefits of cross-fertilisation which is important; the flower receiving the visits of only one species of bee may, in the long run, have a larger number of blossoms cross-fertilised than the one receiving the visits of seven. For example, I have compared the visits of bees to the white flowers of the chickweed and to the blue of a common speedwell (Veronica Buxbaumii).

In the garden where I made the observation, the No. 287.-NOVEMBER 1888.

former was growing thickly, with the latter scattered plentifully among it, and elsewhere. Speaking roughly, about one hundred chickweed. flowers were visited for every one of the veronica: yet, during the period of observation, the former attracted two species of bee, and the latter three.

This fact also speaks not undecidedly on the subject of the bee's asserted preference for blue. Is it not strange, on the supposition of its truth, that the white flowers should receive more visits than the blue? On a rough calculation a bee visited about twenty chickweed flowers per minute: a score of bees at this rate would visit every blossom in the garden in the course of a spring day. And if, in a race of white flowers, practically every flower gets the benefit of a bee's visit, where is the advantage which those happening to have a tinge of yellow, red, or blue are supposed to obtain? It becomes a vanishing quantity: the uncoloured ones are equally benefited.

To return to the poppy and periwinkles, I must confess that the general impression derived from my observations remains the same. If, during an extended series of observations, many thousands of bees are seen on greenish, white and yellow flowers, and none or very few on such conspicuously blue and red ones as the above, I do, and must, draw the conclusion, that bees have no decided preference for red and blue flowers. I do not infer, and do not wish any one to infer from the fact, that I have never seen a bee on a particular flower, that therefore it is not visited : it is the comparative number of visits which is the point.

The habits of bees with regard to those blue flowers which have white and cther varieties is decisive as to their taste in the matter of colour.

I have noticed them on the flowers of the forgetme-not, where blue and white varieties grew together: they pass with seeming indifference from blue to white, and from white to blue.

Among garden hyacinths, where blue, pink, and

M

white grow together, I can distinguish no preference for any of these colours,

One more example of the habits of bees in connection with different coloured flowers of the same species, and I will spare my readers-who have not already spared themselves.

It is the transcript of a leaf from my note-book. Here is a patch of the Sun cistus, or rock rose (Helianthemum vulgare), with red, yellow, and white flowers.

Three yellow blossoms are separated from five white ones by one red; to the right are a large number of red flowers.

Bee No. I visits all three yellow flowers, the red one and four of the white; then pays flying visits to one or two of the yellow, and goes off to the numerous red.

Bee No. 2 visits all five of the white, two of the yellow, goes back to the white and revisits four of them; finally it goes to the red.

I have since frequently observed the bees on the same tri-coloured bed, and have seen them pass from colour to colour in every order possible on the theory of permutations. No bee that I have observed for any length of time on these particular flowers kept to one colour.

Mr. Tansley asks, "Why bees so greatly prefer honey on blue paper, if not because they prefer the colour blue in flowers?" I think, on the whole, I shall leave Sir John Lubbock to explain the results of his own experiments.

But, whatever the interpretation may be, they do not prove that bees visit blue and red flowers more frequently than others, and this is the point. If the experiments are inconsistent with observed facts, so much the worse for the experiments-or the facts.

The statements of Messrs. Grant Allen and Hermann Müller as to the colours, etc., of the most advanced flowers, touch upon a subject about which it is hardly possible to be otherwise than dogmatic. As Mr. Darwin says, "It is hardly possible to define clearly what is meant by the organism being higher or lower." I will not, therefore, enter into any discussion as to what the characteristics of the most advanced flowers are; I will simply bring forward a few examples from our native plants, which seem to me to show, that the statements referred to are weighted with too many and important exceptions to rise to the dignity of rules.

Take the orchids, which Mr. Grant Allen declares to be "by far the highest of the trinary flowers, if not indeed of the entire vegetable world."

Among these we find some sixteen described as green, greenish-white or yellow; thirteen as purple ; four as brown; two as brown and purple. Not a single well-marked blue occurs among them. In the order Boraginaceae, on the other hand, which possesses the lowly mark of symmetry in its flowers, we have a great preponderance of blue. Among the trinary

tribe we have the intensely blue Scilla bifolia, and the wild hyacinth, both simple as to the form of their flowers.

The veronicas are perhaps the simplest of the Scrophulariaceae, and they are blue. The iris is a complex flower, and our commonest species is yellow.

The common flax is a simple flower, and yet blue: the campanulas are blue, and yet comparatively simple. As a last example, take the Compositæ. The highest of the three divisions into which it is usually divided is considered by Mr. Grant Allen to be that in which the corollas are all ligulate. These are, dandelion, hawkweeds, etc.-nearly all yellow : the lowest division, in which the corollas are all tubular, contains many purple flowers.

But I am not at all satisfied that Müller intends, in the words quoted by Mr. Tansley, to assert that the most advanced flowers are usually red, violet or blue. He says we find these colours "appearing for the first time in flowers whose honey is quite concealed "; but there is nothing to indicate that he considers these the most advanced. Now, as a matter of fact, there are some simple flowers-winter aconite and Christmas rose, for example-in which the honey is quite concealed.

Further, it is to be noted, that the second part of Müller's statement is to the effect, that blue appears likewise in simple flowers (Hepatica, Verbascum). The accordance with Mr. Grant Allen's views is only apparent if we accept concealment of honey as the mark of advance, and omit this second part.

And supposing we allow to the combined statements of Grant Allen and Hermann Müller the full force which Mr. Tansley seems inclined to assign to them, they do not in themselves affect the argument. If all highly advanced flowers could be shown to be blue, there would not even be a theoretical possibility that they could have been evolved by the selective action of bees, unless it could also Le shown that bees haveor once had a sufficiently strong preference for blue to cause them to pick out blue flowers for their visits.

Müller's statement, that bees "are not confined by hereditary instincts to certain flowers, but fly about seeking their food on whatever flowers they can find it," fully confirms my own observations and conclusions: it completely annihilates the whole Darwinian theory of the development of flowers by the selective agency of insects. It follows as a necessary and logical consequence from it that, however the form and colour of flowers have been produced, it has not been by the selective action of bees. The theory absolutely requires that the insects should select certain peculiarities of form and colour, and confer upon them the benefit of cross-fertilisation, so that the flowers so chosen may live down the ancestral form, and the less improved varieties; and the selection must be continuously carried out for very many generations of bees before any appreciable advance can take place in the flower.