Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/198

Almost the commonest objects of the seashore, all around our coast, are the curious inflated "Pixy purses," or "Fairy purses," or "Mermaid's purses," which often draw from young folks the inquiry, "What is it?" To save the trouble of a long explanation from such as may not feel disposed to enter upon the subject with their young friends, we have given figures of the two common forms.

The figure with the long twisted tendrils at each corner represents a pale horn-coloured bag of

"purse," generally found empty and inflated, or partly filled with sand. It is almost transparent, rigid, and shining when dry, and often with the tendrils entwined around pieces of sea-weed. This is the egg-case of the spotted dog-fish, or nurse-hound (Squalus canicula), one of the Shark family common on the coast. It is a very voracious fish, and preys upon almost any kind of animal substance. In length it is between three and four feet, and comparatively thin. The fishermen are not at all partial to it, for besides devouring a large quantity of small fish, it is very apt to tear large holes in their nets.

The other figure represents a still commoner object, in which the tendrils are absent, but each corner is prolonged into a kind of spur; these are broader than the other kind of purses, and of a darker colour. They are most common during winter and spring, but one may often be turned up with the sand at other periods of the year. They are also the egg-cases of a fish, but of a very different kind to the other, and belong to one of the Ray family, which are as broad in proportion to their length as the dog-fish are narrow. The species in this instance is the common skate (Batis vulgaris), which has a lozenge-shaped body ending in a slender tail. It is one of the commonest fishes of the coast, and, under the name of "maids," small specimens may often be seen in our fish-markets, but it is not much valued as food. It is recorded that a single fish of this species, weighing two hundred pounds, was once dressed by the cook of St. John's College, Cambridge, and satisfied the appetites of one hundred and twenty learned gentlemen. Fishermen usually cut them up as bait for crabs and lobsters.

The "Hen and Chickens" Daisy of our gardens is very well known, but the proliferous form of the common daisy is rare. A correspondent (J. S.) has sent us a specimen collected by him by

the roadside at Bute, in which ten miniature daisies, borne on short peduncles, sprang from the involucre, and surrounded the parent daisy. The stalk was fully six inches in length, whilst two other flowers of the normal form, and with stalks scarcely half the length, proceeded from the same root.

Beauty in Nature.—The greater part of beautiful forms in nature are to be found in the vegetable kingdom, in the forms of flowers, of foliage, of shrubs, and in those assumed by the young shoots of trees.—Alison on Taste.