MICROSCOPY.

THE "JOURNAL OF MORPHOLOGY."—It is singular how long American morphologists have been content to send many of their memoirs to England for publication, from the want of an authoritative journal, dealing specially with Morphology, in their own country. Several such magazines have been started from time to time in the United States, which were fondly expected to play the same part there that the "Quarterly Journal of Microscopical Science" does in England, but all lamentably failed. Their editors did not succeed in gaining the confidence and support of the best American workers. A new venture has just appeared, under the title of the "Journal of Morphology," and the first number is now before us. It is edited by Mr. L. O. Whitman, the prestige of whose name will go far to ensure its success, and the seven memoirs included in its first issue are remarkable both for the importance of the subjects and from the fact, that they are contributed by men who stand in the first rank of American science. The plates and style of printing are of that high class familiar to readers of the English journal. The English agent is Mr. W. P. Collins, 157 Great Portland Street, London.

MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY OF CALCUTTA.-An interesting meeting of the Microscopical Society of Calcutta was held on the 5th of December last, when Mr. H. H. Anderson read a paper on a new Infusorian discovered by him. It is parasitic in the alimentary canal of Eolosoma chlorostictum, W. M. mss., and has been named Anoplophrya colosomatis. In some cases seven or eight of the parasites have been found in a single worm. The Infusorian sometimes disintegrates while under observation in a curious way, releasing a swarm of ciliated cells. It divides by fusion, and in some instances two septa have formed in a single organism. At the same meeting, Mr. E. J. Jones, A.R.S.M., described some nodular stones which have recently been dredged up off Colombo, in the island of Ceylon, from a depth of 625 fathoms. They possess a specific gravity of 3'77, and it was supposed their great weight was due to an excess of manganese, as was the case in the nodules of the "Challenger" expedition. Only a small trace of manganese is, however, present; but as much as 75 per cent. of sulphate of barium is found. Sections made for microscopic examination indicate a volcanic origin. The spherulites show black crosses, with the nicols crossed; and when the prisms are rotated, the orientation of the crosses remains fixed. The sections also show indications of foraminiferæ, though from the crystalline texture of the nodules, it is clear they have been subjected to great heat.-A. E. Simmons.

ZOOLOGY.

SCARCITY OF V. ATALANTA IN 1887.-My experience with regard to the scarcity of V. atalanta during the past season coincides exactly with that of your correspondent, R. B. P. In the country round Malvern, where I spent August and September, and where Atalanta is usually common enough, I only saw one specimen at the end of August.-A. G. Tansley.

ODOSTOMIAS AT HERM.-During a visit to the Channel Isles in September last, I took the following species of Odostomia at Herm :-0. unidentata, Mont., of occasional occurrence; O. dolioliformis, Jeff., a single specimen; O. spiralis, Mont., common; 0. fenestrata, Forbes, one beautiful specimen -this species is recorded for Jersey only by Dr. Jeffreys; O. scalaris, Ph., of occasional occurrence; O. lactea, L., common; O. acicula, Ph., rare. I may also mention amongst the Rissoids that occurred to me this year in Herm, the following: striatula, Mont., lactea, Mich., cancellata, da C., calathus, F. and H., reticulata, Mont., Zetlandica, Mont., violacea, Des M., costulata, Ald., punctura, Mont., and semistriata, Mont.-B. Tomlin.

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INSECTS, &C., AT GIBRALTAR.-Mr. James J. Walker contributed to the "Entomologists' Magazine" a paper on "A Year's Insect-Hunting at Gibraltar ;" appears that the insects that swarm about the rock are of wonderful interest. There is scarcely a day throughout the year on which butterflies may not be found, and Mr. Walker enumerates fifty-five species for the limited district, thirty of which have occurred on the rock itself. He has found nine hundred species of beetles, and is daily adding to the number. The rock is the sole European locality in which the Barbary ape is found in a wild state. These animals, reduced a few years ago to less than a dozen individuals, have of late greatly increased in numbers, and, being strictly protected, are very bold and fearless. The fig-trees in the gardens suffer so much from their depredations when the fruit is ripening that it is found necessary to employ men to scare them away. The Barbary partridge, though numerous on the rock, as well as on the opposite African coast, is, like the monkey, found nowhere else on the European continent.

MR. WILLIAM BURGESS, proprietor of the Midland Counties Fish Culture Establishment, states that a pond constructed by him last March, measuring fifty feet by thirty feet, which was entirely isolated from other similar ponds, was shortly after its formation found to be populated with trout fry in their alevin stage. No fish of any kind had been placed in the pond, and none could have entered it, the inlet and

outlet being blocked with perforated zinc of a very fine mesh. The soil of the pond in question was excavated from a brook where trout must have previously spawned, and the ova although buried in mud and flung heedlessly about, survived, and the fry came to life when water had been let into the pond. This is another proof of the enduring capacity of Salmonidæ ova.

AUTUMNAL MIGRATION OF BIRDS.-An article appears in the January number of the "Zoologist," by Mr. Allan Ellison, on the "Autumnal Migration of Birds in Ireland." Mr. Ellison says that the migration movement of last autumn in Ireland was in all respects a most exceptional one. Some of the migrants appeared unusually early, and all in much larger numbers than he had ever before observed. On October 8th he saw the first flocks, both starlings and redwings. On the same day, and for about a week after, immense numbers of golden plovers were passing over, flying towards the west and south-west in large V-shaped strings. This was about the usual time for starlings and redwings, but early for golden plover. On the 11th, again, both redwings and starlings were constantly passing. On the 16th, he observed a great host of fieldfares, many thousands in number, winging their way across the sky towards the south-west. From October 17th to the beginning of November, the starling migration was at its height, the flocks being much larger and more numerous than he had ever observed in former years. He saw within a quarter of an hour on the afternoon of the 18th. At 4 P.M. on the 22nd the largest flock he ever saw passed over. It was in the form of a column, perhaps nearly a mile long, and must have numbered thousands, spanning the sky from horizon to horizon, for more than half a minute, and was followed in a short time by two smaller flocks. All the latter part of October skylarks were from time to time flying over, generally large straggling flocks or scattered individuals, flying nearly out of sight, but their callnote being distinctly audible. Mr. Ellison hopes that those who are favourably situated for observing the arrival of winter birds will report whether they have noticed a corresponding abundance of migrants this season.

ANIMAL PSYCHOLOGY.

MISTER PUP.-She is a staid lady of seven years, but such is her name, is a half-bred Bedlington, of undeniable mental acuteness, which is proved, I think, by the following acquired habit. She always drinks from a saucer placed beneath the stone filter in a corner of the dining-room. Finding the saucer frequently empty, she has learned to turn the tap for herself by licking vigorously. She has taught another dog the same habit, but, unfortunately, they forget to

turn the water off when thirst is assuaged; consequently a pool too often stands on the carpet. A new and firm tap has had to be placed on the filter, much to Mister Pup's indignation and wrath.

SHAG AND GULL.--Mr. Winwood Reade, in his Martyrdom of Man," speaking of morality in animals, says: "If they have human virtues, they also certainly have human vices." The following incident, vouched for by a scientific friend of mine in Guernsey, shows that some of our feathered friends are about on a par with humanity, in, at least, the matter of "lex talionis." Near Guernsey harbour, a few days ago, a shag (Cormoranus cristatus) was diving for smelts, which, when captured, he came to the surface to dispose of. Having caught one that was too large to bolt, he cut it in halves, and while he was swallowing the first of these, a gull, that was swimming near by, "annexed" the other. The shag, after a moment's deliberation, commenced proceedings in swordfish versus whale fashion; taking a dive, he came up with great force below the gull, giving it such a thrust with his strong bill as to knock it right out of the water, following up the onslaught by seizing the gull's leg, and for some seconds striving hard to drag the loudly expostulating, or, perhaps, apologising, culprit under the surface. Instinct?-7. Sinel.

BOTANY.

CAMPANULA GLOMERATA AND GENTIANA CAMPESTRIS.-The note by R. B. P. on these plants on page 21 of January SCIENCE-GOSSIP, must be my excuse for mentioning the fact, that the former plant is frequent in S. Beds, on the chalk hills, and often assumes the unifloral diminutive form described by your correspondent as characterising it on Beachy Head. The Gentiana campestris does not appear to grow in S. Beds, at least, I have searched for it diligently for six or seven years, but without success. Gentiana amarella is abundant here, and it frequently occurs with tetramerous flowers, so that at first sight it is easy to mistake it for G. campestris: in fact, the numerical arrangement of the floral organs is of little use in distinguishing the species, the only safe guide being the deeply-divided calyx of the latter. Not having ever found G. campestris, an exchange of specimens with R. B. P. would be acceptable to J. Saunders, Rothesay Road, Luton.

FLOWERS AND FRUITS.-The question put by A. G. Tansley is one which has engaged my thoughts a good deal, as I have always believed that botanists had not been happy in their choice of words to describe the relations between foliar and floral organs. On reading that a leaf is much more highly organised than a petal, it is well to remember that a petal is not an essential organ; that is, not an organ of repro

duction. That the uppermost leaves on a stem should be starved, aborted, or degraded is not indeed what one would expect, considering that leaves are organs of nutrition each of which makes the plant that bears it richer as it grows. Look at a young plant of the scarlet-runner, the second pair of leaves is larger than the first. So it is with peas and other plants raised from seed, that the leaves are larger as they are increased in number, the later leaves having an advantage in the nutriment elaborated by those that came before. We might therefore expect that a plant having no definite limit to its power of growth, an exogenous tree, would go on lengthening upwards till it should reach the height at which its leaves would be starved by reason of the rarefaction of the atmosphere. Such however is not found to be the case. The length of a branch bearing leaves is evidently determined by some other principle than the nourishment which the leaves afford and which is not all spent in provision for the leaves which come immediately after, but stored up in bulb, come, tuber or rhizome, or it may be in a woody stem. Thus it is that the upper leaves upon a stem may be starved, aborted, or degraded at the same time that the plant is laying up a store of nourishment. This procedure of a plant may be compared to the conduct of a man whose bodily strength is exhausted by work till he is no longer able to stand up long enough to earn fourpence by manual labour, but who has laid up so much of what he had already earned as to have capital at his disposal which he may use to gain a profit. By such an expenditure of capital, a plant produces flowers, fruit, and seed, as we may sometimes notice in an old apple-tree covered with blossom and afterwards with fruit though so weak from age that it can hardly form a leafy twig as long as your little finger. John Gibbs.

DIELYTRA SPECTABILIS.-As the naturalisation of foreign species ought always to be placed on record, it may be mentioned that near Coates, Sussex, this pretty flower, doubtless a garden outcast, has become well established during the last few years in woods in the neighbourhood, and will doubtless attract the attention of future observers. It may also be noted that, both as to foliage and flowers, it has so deteriorated that it has a very different aspect from the cultivated plant. Like other of the Fumariaceæ, such as Corydalis lutea, it may possibly become a recognised alien in our flora.-F. H. Arnold.

RAPHIDES.-At a recent meeting of the Jena Naturalists' Society, Prof. Saahl read a paper on the meaning of those excreta of plants called Raphides, i.e. crystalline needles often found in the cells in large quantity. From experiment he inferred that they were a protection to plants against being eaten by animals. Many animals avoid plants with raphides, or eat them reluctantly; and some animal, e.g. snail

species, in eating plants that have raphides select those parts that are without the crystals. Many plants held for poisonous, e.g. Arum maculatum, owe their burning taste simply to the very numerous raphides, which, forced out of their cells, enter the tongue and palate. The juice obtained by filtration has quite a mild taste.

GEOLOGY, &c.

THE DISCOVERY OF A GIGANTIC TURTLE by Dr. DONNEZAN. This specimen was found, with numerous other fossils, in the middle Pliocene of Perpignan during the recent excavations connected with the erection of the fortress of Serrat in the Eastern Pyrenees. The carapace, 1'20 metre long, was extracted with great difficulty from the hard rock in which it was completely imbedded, the innumerable fragments being carefully put together by Dr. Donnezan, by means of about a thousand brackets. This turtle, which he has presented to the Paris Museum, considerably exceeds its living congeners, being equal in size to the T. grandidier, a sub-fossil species found in Madagascar. Its survival down to the close of the Middle Pliocene is important for the study of the glacial period, tending to show that the South of France even then still enjoyed a warm climate.

THE CORRELATION OF SOME OF THE EOCENE STRATA IN THE TERTIARY BASINS OF ENGLAND, BELGIUM, AND THE NORTH OF FRANCE.-Prof. Joseph Prestwich has recently read a paper on this subject before the Geological Society. Although the relations of the several series have been for the most part established, there are still differences of opinion as to the exact relation of the Sable de Bracheux and of the Soissonnais to the English series; of the Oldhaven Beds to the Woolwich series; and of the London Clay and Lower and Upper Bagshots to equivalent strata in the Paris basin. The author referred to the usual classification of the Eocene Series, and proceeded to deal with each group in ascending order. The Calcaire de Mons is not represented in England, but may be in France by the Strontianiferous marls of Meudon. It contains a rich molluscan fauna, including 300 species of Gasteropods, many of which are peculiar, but all the genera are Tertiary forms. The Heersian are beds of local occurrence, and Prof. Prestwich sees no good reason for separating them from the Lower Landenian or Thanet Sands. He gave reasons for excluding the Sands of Bracheux from this group. Out of twenty-eight Pegwell-bay species, ten are common to the Lower Landenian, and five to the Bracheux Sands, which present a marked analogy with the Woolwich Series. These Sands of Bracheux are replaced in the neighbourhood of Paris

by red and mottled clays. Out of forty-five species at Beauvais only six are common to the Thanet Sands and ten to the Woolwich Series. Out of seventyfive species in the Woolwich and Reading Beds nineteen occur in the Bracheux Beds, if we add to these latter the Sands of Châlons-sur-Vesles. Respecting the Basement Bed of the London Clay (Oldhaven Beds in part), Prof. Prestwich would exclude the Sundridge and Charlton fossils, which should be placed on a level with the Upper Marine Beds of Woolwich. He allowed that the former were deposited on an eroded surface, but this involves no real unconformity, whilst the paleontological evidence is in favour of this view, since out of fiftyseven species in the Sundridge and associated beds, only sixteen are common to the London Clay. He therefore objected to the quadruple division. Either the Oldhaven should go with the Woolwich or with the Basement Bed. He admitted that the term "Basement Bed" is objectionable, and preferred Mr. Whitaker's term for the series, as he would limit it. The Lower Bagshot Sands, Prof. Prestwich would call "London Sands," whose Belgian equivalent is the Upper Ypresian, and the French the Sands of Cuise-la-Motte, forming the uppermost series of the Lower Eocene. A group of fossils has been discovered in the Upper Ypresian sands of Belgium, which leaves no doubt of their being of Lower Eocene age, and consequently the Lower Bagshots must be placed upon the same horizon. There is no separating line of erosion between the London Clay and the Lower Bagshots, the upper part of the former is sandy, and the lower part of the latter frequently argillaceous. Similarly no definite line can be drawn between the Upper and Lower Ypresian; but in both countries this series is separated from overlying beds by a well-marked line of erosion. So also in France the base of the Calcaire Grossier (Bracklesham Beds) is a pebbly 'greensand resting on an eroded surface of the Sands of the Cuise-de-laMotte. In Belgium, in Whitecliff Bay, and in the Bagshot district the Upper Eocene rests upon an eroded surface of the Lower Eocene.

NOTES AND QUERIES.

GREEN TREE FROGS.-While staying at Mentone some eighteen months ago, I sent a parcel, containing twelve or fourteen green tree-frogs, to a friend in Brighton who wished to see some, as he had heard a great deal about them; but, on their arrival, not knowing what to do, as they were so lively after their journey, he released some in the garden among the shrubs, but from that moment he saw no more of them; the remainder he gave to two friends to keep in their greenhouses. A few weeks after, I happened to be at his house, when he told me that he had searched everywhere, but could find no signs of the

frogs which he had liberated, and in the course of conversation informed me that his next-door neighbour had a duck, which quacked in a very peculiar manner, different to any that he had ever heard before. On his mentioning this, I suspected that, instead of a duck, it was one of the frogs which had clambered over the wall, and taken up his quarters there. Later on, my attention was called to the sound, which, on being localised, was found to proceed from the upper part of a large bush growing against the wall, but no frog could be found, the foliage being so thick. During the summer months, the frogs strayed from garden to garden of an evening after sunset, or whenever it came on to rain: one would commence croaking, and directly afterwards another would answer from perhaps six or eight gardens away, and then a third, until it almost reminded me of an evening in the Riviera. When the cold weather commenced, they evidently perished, for they were heard no more. Wishing to study a little the habits of these most interesting creatures, I obtained (some sixteen months ago) eleven from the same locality, which I placed in a small fern-case; they seemed to like their quarters much, especially one corner which I arranged to form a pool of mud; but, as regards feeding them, they disposed of blow-flies, houseflies, spiders, or, in fact, any insect which showed signs of life-dead ones they would never touch-in such quantities that they seemed to be never satisfied, their favourite diet apparently being blow-flies, bees or wasps, the stings not disturbing them in the least, and the more they buzz the better they like them. During the winter three of the smallest died, and the surviving eight, evidently owing to the liberal supply of food, have grown considerably. It is astonishing, considering the size of them, what a quantity they can manage to eat or rather swallow. I have seen them tackle and successfully put out of sight, three and four large cockroaches, legs, elytra, and all, and then quietly retire to some obscure corner to go to sleep for a week or ten days, and digest their hearty meal. Since their confinement, they have become very tame, and afford an endless source of amusement to my friends, who, when they happen to hear one croak, express their astonishment that such small creatures should be able to produce a sound almost as loud as a duck. The approach of winter is already very perceptible in their behaviour; they are very sleepy, and have but little appetite for the dainties with which I tempt them, soon they will search out secluded corners, and prepare for their winter sleep.-M. R.

course will deny that the strict and literal sense of the word "rudimentary" is "rude and unwrought' or undeveloped, but it is equally certain that Darwin would have been the last man in the world to tell us that our organs have never reached perfection. So far from leaving me "impressed with the appalling fact that, after all, our much-admired human form, with its boasted superiority, is but a bundle of rudimentary organs, which have never reached perfection," the works of Darwin teach me in a most unmistakable manner that we are SO wonderfully made that our organs are in the highest state of perfection for the existing circumstances, and that we are so constructed that when the conditions alter, our organs do likewise, and thus we remain perfectly adapted to our surroundings, and this should immeasurably increase one's awe of the Power which, in the first instance, created a creature at once suited, admirably suited, to the conditions by which our primæval ancestors were surrounded, provided with the means of bettering his condition and of raising himself to a high state of civilisation, and at the same time enabled to adapt his organs to this higher environment. Surrounded as they were by all sorts of wild animals with whom they were compelled to fight for life and for food, it was essential that the senses of sight, smell, and hearing, should be highly developed in our ancestors; but in this nineteenth century we no longer require such keen perception in these lines, and our senses are consequently modified: on the other hand, the brain which in primitive man was probably less complicated than nowadays, has reached a much more complex stage of development to suit the altered conditions, when men fight in the struggle for existence with their heads instead of their limbs; and this higher state of development in the brain must react on the senses in a manner immensely advantageous when considered in relation to the environment; thus, though we can no longer hear sounds, which were clearly audible to our primitive ancestors, we are enabled to diagnose the sounds we do hear, and appreciate beauties in music to which the savage is still dead. Surely we owe too much to the great name of Charles Darwin-to the man who revolutionised modern science, and set things on a firm, because true, basis, to the man who devoted his whole life to the discovery of truth, in the face of enormous difficulties, who would cheerfully have given up his pet theories one by one, could any one have convinced him that they were false; surely, I say, we owe too much to him to accuse him of offering an insult to the human race because his use of the word rudimentary is not sufficiently flattering to our dignity or our pride. That our senses of hearing, etc., are comparatively rudimentary in some ways to what they once were is to me beyond doubt, nor can I doubt that it is best so, or that what we lose-if it can be called a loss-in one direction, we gain a hundredfold in another. But, since the desire to have the word altered seems to exist, and since the alternative offered- viz. vestiges -does not meet with approval, may I venture to suggest that the word "modified" be mentally substituted when the word "rudimentary" is found to be objectionable. I cannot however believe for one moment that primitive man was made up of excrescences and deficiencies; and to hint even that 66 abnormal development of the organs of sight or anything else exists as a rule in nature is to me illogical, and more insulting to the dignity of the Creator than is Darwin's application of the word "rudimentary" to our organs to the dignity of the creature that was made in the image of God.T. Alfred Dymes.

RUDIMENTS AND VESTIGES.-A writer in your last number seems to take somewhat vehement exception to Mr. Darwin's term of "rudimentary," as applied to certain structures found in the human body, and deems it a slight upon mankind to speak of "vestiges." I confess I cannot see where the objection lies. In speaking of structures as "rudimentary, we use the term in comparison with structures of the same kind in a higher state of development. For example, the "down" covering a man's body is certainly in a more rudimentary condition as regards the hair on the lower animals, which is in a more advanced stage of development. Again, if we grant that man is descended from some lower form, the external ear and its muscles are but "vestiges" of the earlier form, which has gradually atrophied and become changed, as it was no longer necessary. We cannot say that they are in a higher stage of development, as the highest development of the sense of hearing is found in the lower animals. Then why is it not right to call them "vestiges," they are but the altered remains of our progenitors, and are undoubtedly in a "rudimentary" condition compared with the highest standard? As for the cs coccyx being a rudimentary tail, I imagine that most people sit down under the insult, with the greatest composure, and I do not see anything more com. forting to the mind, or more correct in science, in calling it an excrescence. The teeth and jaws of the ape are surely superior to man in strength and biting power, and these are their only use, and I can see no reason why these structures in man should not be considered vestiges, and to be in a rudimentary condition as compared with the ape. Why should these structures be called abnormal in the ape? They are perfectly natural and necessary. We might just as well say that man has an abnormal amount of brain, which would spoil the idea of harmony which exists to perfection, in every organism? In every animal we look at, we find that all its organs are beautifully adapted to perform their various functions, and make up a harmonious whole. It is only the natural conceit of man that causes him to consider certain structures in the lower animals as unsightly. He compares them with his own, but looked at with regard to their anatomy, &c., they become beautiful. There is nothing in anything that Mr. Darwin has said, which must not strike us with increased awe and admiration for the marvellous changes and developments which Nature has brought about.— G. D. Trevor-Roper, Surgeon, R.N.

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FOX EGGARS.-I have got some fox eggars, which I have had since the beginning of September. I have been feeding them on bramble; now they have stopped eating it, and lie curled up in the bottom of the box. Could you tell me if they are hibernating, or if some disease has attacked them?

NEST OF AUSTRALIAN FLY (p. 239).—From the particulars given by Mr. Browne's friend, it is impossible to identify this insect. I have little doubt, however, that it has four wings (flies have only two), and that it is one of the fossorial hymenoptera. Many of the English species, especially those of the genera Pompilus and Crabro, provision their cells with spiders. Some store up for their young other insects, such as flies, aphides, beetles, and lepidop terous larvæ. Towards the end of July last, I came across a large colony of Cerceris arenaria, near Weybridge, and it was interesting to watch the females arriving on the wing at, and entering their burrows on the upright face of a sandbank, each carrying between her legs a beetle, always the same