is greatly increased. -New Textile Fibre.-If, as soon as its flowers have been gathered, the stalks of the hop-plant are made into bundles, and well steeped in water, then dried in the sun, and beaten like hemp, a fibre will be obtained which, after being combed, is admirably adapted to being spun into thread, that furnished by the larger stalks being well suited for cordage or twine. This is very important as the flower is not in any way interfered with.- -New Application of Cork.-Springs of India-rubber, used in the buffers. of railway carriages, etc., under the influence of great pressure soon lose their elasticity. Cork, which may be of an inferior kind, has been found an excellent substitute for them. To render it soft and permanently moist, it is soaked in a mixture of molasses and water. It is then cut into discs which have a central hole, and are placed in a cylindrical cast-iron box, and over them a flat iron disc. Being then subjected to great hydraulic pressure, their thickness is reduced to one half, after which a bolt is run down through the metallic and cork discs, and the bottom of the cylindrical box, and is fastened by a nut. This, when the pressure is removed, prevents the cork from regaining its original dimensions. The apparatus is now ready for use. Cork discs about eight inches in diameter are found to exhibit extraordinary elasticity under a pressure of 20,000 lbs. NOTES AND MEMORANDA. CHEMICAL POISONING.-M. Melsens states, in Comptes Rendus, that chlorate of potash and iodide of potassium may be administered in considerable quantities in succession to dogs, without injuring them, while if they are given simultaneously, the animals are poisoned, apparently by the formation of iodate of potash. He observes that the two salts do not react in this way under ordinary circumstances, but they do so in strong acid solutions, or when in fusion, and when mixed and decomposed by the electric pile. MEDICAL PROPERTIES OP THE TEAZLE.-M. Beullard informs the French Academy that the leaves of the teazle, Dipsacus sylvestris, pounded, and applied to wounds and bruises, has a powerful action in the prevention and cure of gangrene. He removes mortified flesh, washes the wound in chlorurated water, and then applies a poultice of the leaves. He states that he used this remedy with success for fifteen years. BOLIDE AT VICHY.-M. Veriot describes a bolide, seen at Vichy on the 21st August (20th ?), at 7h. 20m. P.M., as like an enormous fusee, and brighter than the moon, It was visible for ten seconds, passing from N.W. to S.W. in a line making an angle of 20° or 25° with the horizon. SHOOTING STARS NEAR THE EARTH.-In Astronomische Nachrichten, No. 1606, is a communication from C. Behrmann, of Göttingen, stating, that on the 30th of July, about 9 h. P.M., shooting stars appeared to come out of a thick cloud, about 15° above the horizon, and vanished in about four-tenths of a second, having a visible path of five or six degrees. The cloud covered the entire sky, and was so thick, that a bright meteor could not have been seen through it; hence he concludes "that the shooting-stars were manifestly driven on this side of the cloud." He thinks these stars must have come within 0.1 mile of the earth. NEW FRESHWATER POLYZOA.-Mr. C. Parfitt describes, in Annals Nat. Hist., two new freshwater polyzoa he found in Devonshire, Plumatella lineata and Limnas. The first is characterized by eight or ten dark brown longitudinal lines running the whole length of the tubes. The polyp cells are barrel-shaped, and hyaline, the mouth entire, each having five or six dark brown annulations, slightly constricted at each annulus. Tentacles sixty-two; statoblasts dark reddish brown, elliptical, with a broad yellow margin. It was found on the underside of water-lily leaves, in a pond in Mr. Veitch's old nursery, Topsham Road, Exeter. The other (P. limnas) belongs to that section of the genus which includes P. emarginata; "but the line of demarcation between the diaphanous portion of the tube in this species and the thick opaque walls of the inferior half, gives it even at first sight a very distinct and marked appearance. Another striking peculiarity is that the tubes grow mostly in pairs, and are very closely adherent to the matrix, except the polyp cell, which stands up conspicuously near the end of the tube." The lower half of the tubes are opaque, and coated with grains of reddish-brown matter. The opaque walls are white inside, and made up of pentagonal cells. Tentacula fifty to fifty-four; calyx festooned. "Statoblasts elliptical, yellow, with a narrow blackish ring dividing the cell from the narrow purple rim or annulus which surrounds it." The orifices are conical, not quite at the end of the tubes, and stand at right angles to the tubes, being raised by three or four folds or rings. SILVERED OBJECT-GLASSES FOR SUN-VIEWING.-M. Foucault proposes that, for the special purpose of viewing the sun, large achromatic objectives should have their outer sides silvered by chemical precipitation. He finds that a silver film, such as that deposited on the silvered mirrors for telescopes, does not interfere with the definition of an object, like the sun, bright enough to be seen through it. THE SPONTANEOUS GENERATION CONTROVERSY still occupies the French Academy. Recently, M. Al. Donné, who formerly took the opposing side, adduced experiments on the affirmative side. He punctured the shells of eggs with a red-hot wire, enveloped the eggs in cotton that had been heated, with a view to destroy germs, and then immersed them in hot ashes. In the course of three weeks or a month he found moulds growing on the organic matter of the egg. M. Pasteur pointed out that the precautions to exclude germs of small organisms were by no means sufficient, and hence the experiment must be rejected. THE CHOLERA MIST.-Should the blue mist described by Mr. Glaisher still appear in any part of the country, it is most desirable that the organic particles it may contain should be accurately examined by the aid of the microscope. Mr. Glaisher and other observers have detected some small bodies of a blue colour, the nature of which has not, we believe, been thoroughly investigated. Microscopists should endeavour to ascertain whether such particles exist in sufficient quantities to account for the colour, and whether they represent known forms of sporules. AN APPLE CONGRESS.-The French Pomological Congress began its eleventh session at Melun on the 14th September. Its object is to induce the rejection of all mediocre and bad sorts of apple-trees, and to promote the cultivation of the finer and more profitable kinds. It is expected that the export of French apples will be extended by these measures; and we have need, as Mr. Roach Smith has pointed out, of something of the sort in this country, where the supply of good apples is below the wants of the population. as right. The greater part of the genus Clausilia (numbering upwards of two hundred species) is reversed. The species of the genera Physa and Triforis appear to be all reversed. All the specimens of Fusus contrarius, Sby., so abundant in the Red Crag, and also found living in Vigo Bay, on the coast of Spain, are left-handed. But, after all, these latter are the exceptions. Every one familiar with garden plants will have noticed that the hop turns round its pole in one direction, going to meet the light, while the scarlet-runner takes an opposite course, as invariably as the sun it follows.* The tendency to spirality is observable in bivalve shells, especially in Isocardia, whose separate valves resemble two spiral univalves-one right-handed, the other left-handed (see Coloured Plate, Fig. 12), with small spires and large apertures. In this shell, as in the common cockle, one valve is placed on each side of the shell-fish, which is usually symmetrical, and lives in a vertical position as regards the plane of its valves. FIG. 2 represents the internal cast of Diceras arietinum, Lamk. Coral Rag, France, nat. size, a, point of attachment; c,c,c', casts of dental pits; t,t,t, t, t', furrows produced by muscular ridges. Fig. 3, internal cast of Requienia Lonsdalei, Sby. sp., nat. size, Lower Greensand, Bowood, Wilts. From Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc., 1855, Vol. XI. p. 53, Figs. 28 and 29. To this there are some exceptions; for example, the oyster and scallop, which, like the turbot and sole among fishes, lie, the former on its left side, and the latter on its right side, and fatten at their ease. The valves of the cockle are united by an elastic ligament, and articulated by projecting teeth, which form a very complete hinge. It is obvious that the valves of a shell cannot grow so freely along the hinge, as on the rest of the margin, but it may shoot out to a great length, as in the (Solen), or in three directions, as in the " in the "hammer-oyster " 66 razor-shell" * Unluckily the botanists have chosen to reverse the terms employed in mechanics, and call the spiral of the hop right-handed. (Malleus), while in the "heart-cockle" each valve takes a spiral (see Coloured Plate, Fig. 12). There are some fossil shells called Diceras, in which the two valves resemble horns, and others called Requienia (see Woodcut, Figs. 2 and 3), with one valve produced into a horn. In Chama the umbones are also spiral. In many bivalves the beaks are turned forwards, towards the head of the animal (not always, as stated in some big books). But the oyster is again an exception in this respect; and if among the exotic or fossil species you find some with spiral growth, the spiral is turned backwards; indeed, the number of exceptions is so great, that one fears to make any general assertion. Anomia, when it grows inside other shells, may have its umbo a little removed from the margin, and the fossil genera of Hippurites exhibit every condition between a marginal ligament and a spiral beak, like Chama, and a patelliform valve, with a ligament wholly internal, and a central umbo. The shell, considered as a defence, is most complete in those bivalves, like the oyster, which shut up close (see Coloured Plate, Figs. 11 and 12), and in those univalves which have an operculum, or door, to their houses (same Plate, Fig. 3). Many bivalves gape a little at the sides (or ends), where the foot and the respiratory tubes are accustomed to be pushed out; and many univalves are too large and bulky, in proportion to their shells, to be completely housed and protected in them. The cowry owes the glassy polish of its whole exterior to the amplitude of its mantle, whose folds meet over its back, and ordinarily conceal the shell entirely. In the shining Marginellas and Olives, and some Volutes, the shell is partially glazed by the same envelope. One sort of garden-slug, the Testacella (see Woodcut, FIG. 4. Testacella haliotidea, side view; s, shell; b, end view of a specimen which has been disturbed from its winter sleep, showing the mantle partly expanded round the shell. sea Fig. 4), has a small, shield-like shell on its tail, while the rest appear to have no shell at all, it being always rudimentary, and usually internal. Such is also the case in Aplysia, the " hare," in which the shell is entirely concealed by the mantle. On the other hand, Cyclostoma elegans (see Woodcut, Fig. 6), a snail found in hedgerows and thickets of the chalk districts, covers the aperture of its shell with a close-fitting, shelly plate, |