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had its contents differentiated in a necklace-like manner, and gave birth to the zoospores far removed from the original vesicles. The same thread also produced two true oogonia on the water.

4. At the meeting of the Scientific Committee of the Royal Horticultural Society, held on July 21, Mr. Renny showed a species of Saprolegnia which, he said, might be mistaken for Peronospora. But if reference is made to my original paper, it will be seen from the first that I have perceived the intimate connection between the new condition of the potato fungus and the Saprolegnieæ. On my side I have the high authority of Thuret and Berkeley for similar alternation in the diseases of silkworms,

flies, &c. I am quite prepared, therefore, to consider Mr. Renny's plant, if not the same, some close ally with mine, even if it should turn out to be a true Pythium, and its oogonia produce zoospores in water, especially after what is known of the nature of Cystopus, the close ally of Peronospora. Two strong points in favour of this view are these: (1) The resting spores of Pythium are unknown, but if I find Pythium inside potato stems and leaves mixed up with the Peronospora, and the same Pythium in the very centre of the tuber of the potato (as I have done), there maturing itself and forming its resting spore; then the identity of the two may reasonably be assumed, and the resting spore of the

Pythium, as well as the Peronospora, is found. (2) The same cells in the Saprolegnies will alternately produce, under the same (or different) conditions, zoospores or resting spores; therefore, if zoospores are produced in Mr. Renny's oogonia in water, it is reasonable to assume that under dif ferent conditions resting spores would be formed by similar cells. I have, from the first, believed the Saprolegnia condition of the fungus to be widely

hock parasites have been restrained, it certainly does not seem impossible that means may be found to mitigate the damage done every year by the potato murrain.

ON SETTING AND PRESERVING HYMENOPTERA.

diffused, and when in that state it quite possibly MY attention having been attracted by an article

grows on diverse plants and substances in watery places, as was explained by me. The Saprolegnia is the caterpillar condition (belonging to the water, like the larva of the dragon-fly), the Peronospora somewhat analogous with the perfect butterfly, and the resting spore with the dormant chrysalis.

5. I find by experiment, when badly diseased haulm, fruit, and tuber are partly submerged for from one to four days, the Peronospora changes its character, and produces the Pythium or Saprolegnialike growth on the submerged parts. On examination of the plants, this may be easily overlooked, as the Saprolegnia commonly frees itself and floats on the surface of the water, and must be carefully taken off (invisible as it is) with a camel-hair pencil. If the oogonia now produce zoospores in the water, as in Pythium, which is possible and even probable, it in no way invalidates my views, or makes the connection less probable between Pythium and Peronospora.

6. The aërial spores of the Peronospora never become globular in water, whilst the oogonia and antheridia are always so.

7. A superabundance of water excites the growth of the mycelium, but it retards the proper production of the resting spore, just as a superabundance of water in most plants makes leaves and retards flowers.

8. In my calendar of the weather I find we had here only five wet days from May 7 to June 10 (no wet between May 8 and 20), and it was during this dry weather that the potato fungus this year lived inside, and at the entire expense of the plant, and there perfected its resting spores. With the twenty-two wet days after June 10 the Peronospora put on its usual shape, and came to the surface.

9. I have got my most abundant materials from the tuber when soft and almost transparent, like painters' size. In this state the starch is utterly destroyed, and, what is most curious, there is no offensive smell. The tuber frequently decomposes with a horrible fetor, and turns whitish inside; the starch is then present, and more or less injured, and very little can be seen of the fungus.

10. The season is too far advanced, and the fun. gus has already caused too much destruction to think of grappling with it this season, but when it is remembered how the vine, the corn, and holly.

under the above heading in your October number, I trust I may be allowed to make a few suggestions thereon. In the first place, to my mind the method pursued by Mr. Bridgman in killing his specimens is far too complicated. He first stupefies the insects with cyanide of potassium, then pillboxes them. When they have revived, he doses them with chloroform; and then, lest they should survive this treatment, he subjects them for the space of three hours to an elaborate sulphur-bath, whence they are transferred "into a damp box for twelve or more hours." Cyanide of potassium has two objections. It is apt to turn the colour of some insects. Sulphur has the same objection; and the vapour it evolves is unpleasant to inhale, causing headache and nausea with some people. Chloroform is expensive, difficult to keep, on account of its rapid evaporation, and dangerous. The plan I have found most efficient, and I believe there are few I have not tried, is as follows:

On a fine, dry day collect some couple of dozen or so of the common green laurel-leaves: be sure they are perfectly free from all external moisture, or they will be likely to turn mouldy. Then procure a wide-mouthed bottle; cut the leaves into small pieces, and fill to within two inches of the mouth. Cut also some paper discs, the size of the bottle, and press them flat on the top of the leaves; two will be sufficient. In a few days the leaves will turn brown, when it is ready for use.

This is my Store-bottle.

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For the sum of one shilling you can purchase at any entomological "naturalist's' one of the zinc pocket collecting-boxes Mr. Greene recommends. Fill the chamber beneath the perforated bottom with equal parts of camphor and ammonia, and then you will have one of the most powerful killing-boxes extant. When out collecting, it is as well to have two of these boxes in your pocket; and when you have some fifteen or twenty specimens in one, use the other for a time. Then you can empty the contents of the first one into a pill-box, and it is ready for use again. There is one disadvantage in connection with the box; viz., the inside surface of the overlapping part of the lid requires oiling now and then, to prevent it sticking; and, if not kept dry, the ammonia is apt to deliquesce. I generally renew mine once a month, soaking the box in hot water.

When you return from a day's excursion, turn out your spoils into the Store-bottle, where they may remain until you wish to set them; and if that should not be for months, they will still remain just as you put them in,-as pliant as the day they were caught. If your readers will kindly turn to fig. 140, I will endeavour to explain my mode of setting.

Having pinned your insect to the sheet of cork as described by Mr. Bridgman, first set out the legs (a most important part of the business, as in Hymenoptera they are most conspicuous). The great art of setting is to set naturally. If you have ever observed a fly or a bee walk, you will at once see that the insect represented is in a very unnatural position. The front pair of legs are natural enough. The hind pair should be where the middle pair are; and the middle pair should be exactly in the centre between the first and second pair of wings, if any. thing slightly inclined forward.

Having arranged this to your satisfaction, take two oblong pieces of cord, and through each end pass a pin. Stretch them so that they are on a level with the wings above the middle pair of legs; then fasten the wings upon them with braces, as in the cut. You will perceive that the only difference is that the legs are under instead of upon the card, as represented. I acknowledge that to do this well, especially in the case of small insects, some trouble must be taken; but when we remember the fact that an insect once set well is worth all the trouble bestowed upon it, and remembering that, if the Store-bottle be used, we may utilize the winter evenings, I think your correspondent Mr. BridgIman will admit that my plan is at least worth a trial. J. P. BLACKETT, JUN.

absolutely impossible. The term hermaphrodite is now used to designate an individual possessing an admixture of the two sexes. In all cases the malformed individual being of one or the other sex, and related to the opposite sex by some few characters only.

The origin of this hermaphrodism has been considered somewhat obscure, but it may in most cases be referred to some arrest or excess in the process of development, because, in the early stages of embryonic life, there is found a very close resemblance between the generative organs of both sexes.

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LOCAL NAMES OF PLANTS.

N the October number a correspondent mentions that "Bazier" is the name given in some parts

AMONG a great number of larvae of this moth, of Lancashire to the Auricula, and suggests that

which I have reared in my breeding-cages

this year, one has turned out an hermaphrodite. It is a female, the reproductive organs, however, being but imperfectly developed.

Differing from its sisters of the same brood, it failed to attract any males by "sembling," although favourably exposed for that purpose. The constant occurrence of hermaphrodism among insects is worthy of remark, as it illustrates in a measure, one of the most interesting questions of the day. An hermaphrodite was despised by the ancients as an individual capable of fulfilling by turns the reproductive functions of both sexes, or as one which at the same time possessed both the male and female organs fully developed. Such a condition of things, however, not only does not obtain among the authentic details of anomalies, but is in nature

"Bazier" may be a corruption of Base Ear, Sow, or Little Ear.

As Auricula Ursi is an old scientific name, and "Oreille d'Ours" is the modern French vernacular name for the Auricula, it can, I think, hardly be doubted that "Bazier" is simply a corruption of "Bear's Ear." These phonetic corruptions, as they may be called, are a fruitful source of local and vernacular plant-names, and are sometimes very amusing and almost always instructive.

At the entrance to Covent Garden are some stalls, at which the humbler members of the horticultural fraternity dispense roots and plants to the owners of London suburban gardens. These good people have some one who prints their labels for them, in a very showy style; but the spelling is occasionally somewhat loose. Once, in passing one of these

stalls, I saw a label marked RECKLESS. My curiosity was excited to know what plant bore this vernacular name; and I accordingly asked for a specimen, and found that the label was intended to designate "Auriculas"! Similarly the "Geum coccineum" becomes "Scarlet Gem." "Potentilla" figures as "Fortune-teller," &c.

One of the most interesting of these phonetic corruptions is the "Primrose." Originally, and properly, the name of the daisy, the old Italian word for which is "la Primaverola," the flower of spring (Primavera); this becomes in French "Primverolles," and first appears amongst us as "the Primrolles," the perversion of which into "Primrose" (meaning, as some instructive schoolbooks tell us, the Prime Rose-the first rose, or flower, of the year) is easily accounted for. In fact, it is an illustration of the way in which many of these phonetic corruptions are brought about. A foreign or scientific name is introduced, which to the uneducated is simply unmeaning; but it hap-` pens to bear a similarity in sound to some vernacular word, which has a meaning, and although the meaning word has no conceivable connection with the thing, the commune vulgus prefer to use it, rather than one which is to them vor et præterea nihil. Instances are afforded by such words

as

'Jerusalem Artichokes" (from "Girasole "); 'Sparrow-grass" for "Asparagus," as well as the Scarlet Gem and Fortune-teller above referred to, and innumerable others. It is to a similar principle that we may trace the practice of the French of planting a poplar as the "Tree of Liberty"; under the impression that "populus," "le peuplier," means the tree that represents "the people" (populus), and the supporter of the people's rights. I was once very much amused by a fly-driver at Ilfracombe, who knew the whereabouts of all the specialities in the fern way, telling me of a cave where I should find some fine specimens of the "Serina." Not being acquainted with any plant of this name, I betook myself to the cave in question, and there found several fine plants of Asplenium marinum, the Sea Spleenwort. So that my friend, or some one who taught him, had by tacking on the tail of the botanical name to the head of the vernacular, made up the not ill-sounding word of "Serina," or "Sea-riner" (I am sure I do not know how he would have spelt it).

I remember in one of the early comic annuals some amusing lines of Hood, describing how a country nurseryman had made a large sum out of the sale of a simple little flower, which he sold under the name of the "Rhodum Sidus." This charming name had proved quite an attraction to the ladies, and the flower had become the rage of the season. At length a pertinacious botanist, who found that the flower was a not uncommon weed (say the Erythræa Centaurium), insists on knowing where the

nurseryman got his name from, and elicits the following reply:

"I found this flower in the Road beside us,
So christened it the Rhodum Sidus."

C. B.

SKETCHES IN THE WEST OF IRELAND. No. 10.-ARAN.

THE

(Post-Christian Antiquities.)

THE crosses and pillar-stones next require consideration. The erection of pillars is a very ancient custom, which the Christians adopted; on the pagan pillars cutting crosses, and thus sanctifying them. Subsequently the carved massive crosses, not uncommon in Ireland, seem to have been introduced. The crosses in Aran are varied in character, some being plain, cut on liagan or pillar-stones; others are elaborately carved out of blocks; while some are incised on flat slabs or flags. The large carved crosses have been disgracefully used. Of some only a few pieces can be found, and all are broken. The accompanying figures (figs. 168, 169, and 170) represent some common West of Ireland forms of crosses observed in different places, cut in or raised on monumental slabs or pillars. Fig. No. 169 is the form of the cross that usually was inscribed by the bishop while consecrating a building for sacred purposes. It has been called by the late G. V. du Noyer, M.R.I.A., "The Cross of the Redemption," because, as he pointed out, it is a rude representation of the Holy Ghost descending in the bodily shape of a dove to light on our Saviour. The typical Irish cross, which is often most elaborately carved, like those at Clommacnoise, Moristenboise (fig. 172), and many other places, is a combination of the Cross of the Redemption with the Cross of the Passion. In pagan times the Irish had their Tiodh Neimheadh, or sacred groves, to which criminals fled for refuge: these were marked by liagan. The early Christians adopted many of the pagan temples and other sacred places, and, among others, the sacred groves, which by them were called "Tearmons"; crosses being inscribed on the liagan, which they afterwards called "Terminal crosses (fig. 171). Such a tearmon seems to have existed at Monasterkieran, on Aranmore, and is thus described by Kilbride :-"Four tall pillar-stones formerly surrounded the buildings. One now stands within a few paces of the southeast gable of the church, another in a wall a few feet west of the church, while the other two have been dug up, and now lie in an adjoining field. These two, and probably all four, have been removed from their original sites. Each pillar is about five feet long and a foot in breadth. The usual cross cut on these pillars is two circles about a foot

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apart, with horizontal lines drawn through the centres of the circles; also a vertical line. Such crosses, in some cases, are fringed with tracery, and present a handsome appearance. The cross near the gable of the church has a hole of more than an inch in diameter pierced through it (fig. 171). Such holes are looked upon as a mark peculiar to the pillar-stones used in pagan times for the double purpose of commemorating the dead and also as

Fig. 168. Common Irish Cross.

objects of worship, while after the introduction of Christianity they were adapted for religious use, and appropriated to its service by the cross being incised on them." This kind of pillar is called Clogh-a-poul, or hole-stone.

Some of the

churches and their appendages were inclosed within massive walls, or cashels, evidently for the purpose of defence. These are very similar in construction, and evidently were built after the

cashels. pagan Caiseal (pronounced cashel) is derived from the same root as caisiollacht, the round rim of a pot or caldron, and originally was applied only to a round inclosing stone wall fortification, although subsequently it was sometimes applied to the more modern square castles.

Fig. 169. Cross inscribed by Bishop when consecrating a church.

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Each ecclesiastical cashel contained within its wall churches, a well, and habitations; the latter seem to have been wall-cells, cloghan, and luscas. The wall-chambers are commonly found in cashels that were built on the solid rock: they are very common in the cashels in the counties Kerry and Galway. They were constructed in the thickness of the wall, may be of any length, from five to seven or eight feet wide, and usually are four and a half or five feet high. The cloghāns have been described previously. A lusca, or lusk, is a cave, crypt, or subterranean habitation, and is explained by O'Cleary, "Teach talmhan," a house in the earth. Some lusks are simply caves, scooped out in drift or such like accumulations; others evidently

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were excavations in which habitations were built, which afterwards were covered up with clay. Some of them are most ingeniously constructed, and hereafter will be more fully described. In some cashels stones to build the surrounding wall seem to have been quarried in their interior, the hollow afterwards being turned into lusks. In Aran there are structures partaking of both the nature of lusks and cloghans, as they are partly below ground like a lusk, but are roofed like the latter. The post-Christian cashels had massive stone doorways that have been mistaken for cromleacs when the adjoining wall was removed. One of these detached doorways has already been figured in Chapter V. (fig. 52). Other habitations were the lauras and cœnobiums: some of the lauras were inside cashels. Petrie, while writing of the antiquities on Aranmore, describes a laura as a building containing many cells divided from each other, where every monk provided for himself, and led a solitary life under the authority of a bishop or abbot; while a cœnobium was a house in which the monks dwelt, lived, and ate together, all

Cross.

being provided for Fig. 170. Common form of Irish from a common purse.

Of the three islands Aranmore was the great place for the saints, it is teeming with the ruins of ecclesiastical structures and other objects that perpetuate their memory, while on the other islands fewer are met with. On Inisheer," or the south island, is St.Gobuet's church, a small cyclopean strueture; and St. Caomhain's, or Cavan's church, which is nearly imbedded in the sand. The latter is supposed to be a twelfth-century church, and is divided into a nave and chancel by a beautiful arch. Immediately north of the church is the saint's tomb, now called Labbacaomhain, which is supposed to be very effective in curing the sick, who visit it in great numbers on his day, which formerly was the 3rd of November, but it is now changed to the 14th of June. The saint died A.D. 865. There are also the ahala of the daughters; Cloghānavillaun; and Cloghan Eany, or St. Eude's house.

On the middle island are three churches, an aharla, and a holy well. One of the churches is called Teampull Seachtmicrigh, or the church of the seven sons of a king; and a second Teampull Crannanach, or Kenanack's church. It is after this saint, whose original name was Gregory, that Gregory's Sound is called. This church is a very com

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