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NOTICES TO CORRESPONDENTS.
All communications for the Editor should be addressed to No. 192, Piccadilly, W. To avoid disappointment, contributions should be received on or before the 15th of each month. No notice can be taken of anonymous communications. All notes, queries, or articles for insertion, must be guaranteed by the name and address of the writer, which may be withheld from publication if so desired.
Queries.—Having been inundated with questions, we are compelled to announce that we cannot undertake to answer those of which the querist might satisfy himself by an appeal to any elementary book on the subject. We are always prepared to accept queries of a critical nature, and to publish the replies, provided some of our readers, beside the querist, are likely to take an interest in them.
We cannot undertake to return "rejected addresses."
O. W.—The small cocoons from the Cabbage Caterpillar are those of a parasitic species of Ichneumon.
R. G. M. has two hundred named specimens of British Mosses, together with a coloured copy of Wilson's "Bryologia Britannica," to dispose of. The price is that of the book. Apply to Editor.
J. F. P—Your yellow fungus on rose-leaves is called Lecythea Rosæ.
C. A.—Your fungus on decayed wood is Didymium nigripes.
O. W.—The larvæ sent us, which caused such havoc amongst your cherry and pear trees, is that of a saw-fly of the genus Athalia. You should endeavour to rear the fly and send us specimens if you wish to know the species.
M. E. B.—We are not numismatists.
T. C. H.—Ring Ousels are not uncommon in some parts of Great Britain. We have seen them plentifully in North Wales.
W. P.—We have answered this query in a former number. The viper, the common snake, and the smooth snake.
Pecten, not Pertea—see Geological query, p. 229, where this error occurs.—A. G. R.
C. A.—The species of Lemna alluded to at page 6 as not having been found in Britain, is Lemna arrhiza, described and figured in Reichenbach's Flor. Germ., VII. 14.
M. A. B.—Your shells are of three species, Bulimus obscurus, Clausilia nigricuns, and Clausilia bidens.—R. T.
H. A. A.—Mr. Hardwicke announces a Handbook for the Aquarium, shortly to be published, which will give all the information you desire.
E. W.—No one would venture to name your specimen of seaweed from description only.
H. L.—The least reflection will enable you to answer such a question for yourself. Replace the fly by a feather and watch the result.
W. L. C.—It is not a fungus, but disease. A common case of "shanking."
W. P.—A good and cheap work on British Lepidoptera is "Stainton's Manual."
J. C. M.—Prepare a glass slide with hydrochloric acid, and then breathe sufficiently on it that you can condense the moisture by heat of a lamp, or otherwise, before it has evaporated.—H. L. A.
W. L. S.—You enclosed three flies to be named, but did not attach any number or mark, so that were we to give the names, you could not tell to which individual each name belonged.
D. G.—It is an Ichneumon, known as Ophion luteus.
Erratum.—At page 237, instead of "¼-inch bull's eye-piece," read "¼-inch and B eye-piece."
F. C. J. S.—Probably a viviparous fly; see p. 82.
T. H. is thanked for his suggestion, but the illustrations would cost too much for us to give a figure and description of all the British Diatoms for fourpence.
E. M.—(1) We cannot tell. (2) We must not tell.
W. W. S.—Vegetable. Incomplete state of a fungus.
A. J.—We cannot say, without seeing the specimen, what your larva might be.
T. H. M.—Can be had anywhere.
R. T. C.—The black spots on Sycamore leaves are caused by a parasitic fungus which is very common, and called Rhytisma acerinum.
T. F. W.—What we required is popular names, with the localities where they are employed, known by personal experience to the writers, and not derived from books.
M. M.—The misfortune of which you complain is a common one, for which we can recommend no radical cure. Keep your insects dry, let them be quite dry when pinned, and change your pins when verdegris appears.—F. M.
Poor Things.—If any poor creatures every were persecuted with pen and ink, then Wasps, Humming-bird Hawk-moths, and Death's-head Moths have this year good caused to complain. We have a pile of such communications, and must immolate them to appease the poor insects; for to insert them is out of the question.
W. H.—Flowers of the Jerusalem Artichoke were duly received and forwarded to J. G.
C. K.—It is unusual for Laburnum and Apple trees to bloom a second time, in the autumn; but "tlmes are out of joint" this year, and freaks of nature common.
A. S.—Really not sufficiently uncommon to merit notice.
C. A. J.—We should scarce think it would be injurious.
L. D.—(1) The most appreciable sexual differences are the relative sizes, and distinctness of markings. (2) Any vegetable.
A. J.—One of the Sphingidæ, probably Acherontia. It is unsatisfactory to name from decription.—F. M.
W. D.—See our remarks on Fish Moulds, pp. 119, 134.
E. D. M. W.—The only work we know is Nichol's "Dictionary of Scientific Terms," Reeve, 12s. 6d.
A. G.—As to the age of the Fossil Human Skeleton in the British Museum, consult Mantell's "Petrifactions," pp. 483–5, and Mantell's "Wonders of Geology," p. 86.—R. T.
E. C. Y.—Forwarded as requested.
Drying Starfish.—See p. 136.
Communications Received.—O. W.—H. L.—S. J. McI.—G. C. B.—J. H. C. K.—W. G.—J. A.—A. S.—J. R. S. C.—M. J. B.—J. L.—E. W.—H. A. A.—H. W.—R. G. McL.—W. P.—T. H.—W. L. S.—J. B.—W. L. C.—H. A. A.—E. T. S.—A. G. R.—T. L. D.—H. E. W.—T. R. J.—F. C. J. S.—P. S. B.—E. R.—A. G.—T. C. H.—J. A. L.—R. S.—A. G.—M. E. B.—C. A.—J. H.—W. C. H.—H. W. L.—J. C. B.—T. P.—E. M.—H. W.—C. R.—J. F. P.—M. M.—L. G. M.—R. T. C.—J. B.—A. S.—E. G. W.—T. H. M.—W. R. T.—C. A.—T. F. W.—A. J.—J. F. C.—L. D.—I. G.—R. Bl.—S. S.—M. D. P.—J. A.—S. W.—J. B. H.—H. B.—C. A. J.—W. H.—F. H. B.—G. W.—T. P. B.—C. K.—B. H.—J. W.—C. W. B.—G. R. R.—E. B.—F. E. T.—W. D.—E. D. M. W.
Correspondents will please to append their own names, or initials, to their communications, which may be withheld from publication if desired; but no notice whatever can be taken of anonymous contributions.
BOOKS RECEIVED.
"The Optical Defects of the Eye, and their Consequences." By John Zachariah Laurence, F.R.C.S., M.B., &c. 112 pp. 8vo. cloth. (London: Hardwicke.)