Page:Hardwicke's Science-Gossip - Volume 1.pdf/72

56 correspondence between the distribution of the branches on the tree and the veins in the leaf. The veins are clustered or whorled with a nearly parallel venation at the point where

they begin to come off; the lateral veins making, with the midrib, an angle of 42°, and the veins proceeding from them an angle of

50°—these last, corresponding with the angle of the peduncle, form the branch. A curious observer will in like manner discover that the horse-chestnut, which sends off at the top of its bare trunk seven branches, has its leaf commonly divided into seven leaflets; whilst the sycamore, sending off at eight or ten feet from the ground four or five large branches, has a long leaf-stalk dividing into five midribs. In like manner, laburnum and broom, with their triplet leaves, divide into three main branches; and rhododendrons, barberries, and azaleas, whose leaves issue from the stem in whorls, branch in a kindred manner. Not only these, but the triplet leaf and stalk of the marsh trefoil, the wood sorrel, the clover, adopt the law in question; as do likewise the lady's-mantle, geranium, mallow, and lupin, with their clustered leaves or midribs.

T was announced in our last that a new fish had been introduced into our waters from Wallachia. The Acclimatisation Society has received has received fourteen living specimens from Sir Stephen Lakeman's estate at Kapochein, or rather from the river Argich which flows past that nobleman's Wallachian domain. A brief notice of these visitors may prove acceptable as an adjunct to the potrait which stands above it. It should be premised that this species is noticed in Yarrell's British Fishes; not that this author believed it a native, but because it had the reputation of having been found here, on the faith of a paragraph in Sibbald's "Scotia Illustrata." There is no doubt, that the conclusion arrived at was a wrong one, not admitted by Cuvier and Valenciennes in their great work on the "Natural History of Fishes," who state that its distribution in Europe does not extend to the British Isles.

The Silurus was originally classed by Cuvier between the pike and salmon families. To the former of these it may be supposed to claim kindred by its voracious habits, and to the latter, if all accounts be true, by the excellence of its flesh as an article of food. Notwithstanding these somewhat poetical affinities, it has another position assigned to it now. One evident characteristic in this fish is the absence of true scales, a feature which characterizes the group to which it belongs. Another important difference will be noticed in the great length of the anal fin, which extends to the tail; but, above all, the barbules will attract attention. Whether or not these are to be considered as substitutes for beard and moustaches, probably the