Hyoscyamus

“ Take of opium, of the juice of the unripe mulberry, of hyoscyamus, of the juice of hemlock, of the juice of the leaves of mandragora, of the juice of the woody ivy, of the juice of the forest mulberry, of the seeds of lettuce, of the seeds of dock, which has large round apples, and of the water-hemlock, each an ounce: mix all these in a brazen vessel, and then place in it a new sponge; let the whole boil as long as the sun lasts on the dog-days, until the sponge consumes it all, and has boiled away in it. ”

“ The flower-stem in another kind (p. 128) comes out of the ground in a coloured sheath, before the appearance of the leaves, and is consequently liable to suffer from frost. Another variety always pushes a second flower-stem after the first has begun to develop itself. Lastly, white hyacinths with red, purple, or violet centres (p. 129) are the most liable to rot. Thus, the hyacinth, like so many previous plants, when long cultivated and closely watched, is found to offer many singular variations. ”

“ It is especially curious that they are not to be utilised only by the animal itself, but also by the other members of the colony who are not able to form such stores. Among the Myrmecocystus there are workers of two sorts; the first kind resemble other ants with some differences of detail, and build and hollow the earth nest which shelters the community. The second kind is quite different; the abdomen in these workers is enormously distended so as to constitute a voluminous sphere, which may become four or five times larger than the thorax and head together. ”

“ The hyacinth can grow in water alone, because it has been a provident little body, and stored away enough food in the little round carpet-bag of a bulb to supply the plant for the few weeks of its life. It only asks for the water it needs to keep it alive and growing. When the thirsty little roots have sucked up water enough, the bulb begins to grow in the other direction. If you look, you will see a solid lump of pale green come up from the top like the horns of a calf, or a baby's tooth. This is the young plant coming up out of its dark cradle into the light and air and sunshine. ”

“ All along the river it is difficult to find clear places on the banks on which to laud the nets, and it is usually necessary to spend some time in clearing the water hyacinth away in order to provide a suitable place. The detritus of dead plants which accumulates on the bottom of the river is also some hindrance to fishermen. Previous to the introduction of the water hyacinth the bottom of the river in most places was sandy and clear of obstruction. Now in many places, the writer is informed, the decaying plants have collected in masses several feet deep. ”

“ The general opinion seems to be that the original hyacinth was the colour of the natural wild hyacinth (which is a Scilla?) which grows in the woods, where the red variety is not nearly as commonly found as the blue.
On the other hand, the first species may have been red, for in old fables it seems the hyacinth was thought to be red. Ovid relates how a flower sprang from the blood of the young Hyacinthus, [2] whom Apollo slew by accident with a quoit. Others, like Pliny and Pausanias, say the blood of Ajax, slain near Salamis, was changed into this flower. ”

“ As the stamens diverge with the spreading of the divisions of the perianth, to which they are attached, the stigma receives pollen brought from another flower, before the visitor dusts himself anew in searching for refreshment, thus effecting cross-pollination. Ants, bees, wasps, flies, butterflies, and beetles may be seen about the wild hyacinth, which is obviously best adapted to the bees. The smallest insects that visit it may possibly defeat Nature's plan and obtain nectar without fertilizing the flower, owing to the wide passage between stamens and stigma. ”

“ The classification of the Cyemaria is much disputed; sometimes they are held to be parasitic infusoria (like the Opalina) , sometimes platodes or vermalia, related to the suctorial worms or rotifers, but having degenerated through parasitism. I adhere to the phylogenetically important theory that I advanced in 1876, that we have here real gastræads, primitive survivors of the common stem-group of all the Metazoa. In the struggle for life they have found shelter in the body-cavity of other animals. ”

“ This hymenopterous insect certainly shows in its acts as an artisan an inevitable instinct: hereditary intelligence has become less personal and less spontaneous. In certain cases, however, the instinct loses its rigidity and automatism. Thus, when a Chalicodoma, at the moment of preparing to accomplish its task, finds an old nest, still capable of repair although dilapidated, it does not hesitate to take possession of it and to silence its assumed innate instinct of building. ”

“ More trustworthy evidence of fossil fungi is afforded by the marks of disease in petrified tissue and by the presence of true mycelia. In examining closely the calcareous and siliceous plant-tissues from the Coal-Measures and other geological horizons, one occasionally sees fine thread-like hyphae ramifying through the cells or tracheal cavities; in many cases the hyphae bear no reproductive organs and cannot as a rule be referred to a particular type of fungus. If the hyphal filaments are unseptate, they most likely belong to some Phycomycetous species ”

“ These Hymenoptera possess no organ specially adapted to aid them; it is with their saliva that they glue this dust together and make of it a substance very suitable for its purpose. The dwellings often reach considerable size, yet they are always begun by a single female, who does all the work without help until the moment when the first eggs come out; she is thus furnished with workers capable of taking a share in her task. The Vespa sylvestris builds a paper nest of this kind, hanging to the branch of a tree, like a great grey sphere prolonged to a blunt neck. ”

“ On the whole, the writer has been forced to the conclusion that eradication is impracticable. He finds, furthermore, that those who have given the matter candid consideration mostly agree in this opinion. The evil, however, is certainly so serious that means should be devised, if possible, to keep it in check. This, it is believed, can be accomplished at fairly reasonable expense.
Methods of keeping the pest in control The water hyacinth is easily killed in many ways, but only those methods which are thought to be the most practicable can be discussed here. ”

“ A great many of the Scyphozoa, particularly the larger kinds, have the reputation of being able to sting the human skin, and in consequence the name Acalephae [346] was formerly used to designate the order. Of the British species Aurelia aurita is almost harmless, and so is the rarer Rhizostoma pulmo; but the nematocysts on the tentacles of Cyanaea, Chrysaora, and Pelagia can inflict stings on the more delicate parts of the skin which are very painful for several hours, although the pain has been undoubtedly greatly exaggerated in many popular works. ”

“ The hyphæ swell out at the ends into large spherical thickenings, filled with richly vacuolated protoplasm like the ordinary hyphæ. These clumps of “Kohl-rabi” are only found on the surface of the garden, and form the principal food of the ants; they have no doubt reached their present form under the cultivation and selection of the ants. The fungus was found to belong to the genus Rozites, and the species was named R. gongylophora. A microscopic examination of the particles of which the garden is composed shows that they contain remains of leaves ”

“ Hypselostoma (Fig. 202, A) is a most remarkable genus of the Pupidae, reminding one of Anostoma of the New World. It is peculiar to the peninsula, but for one species in the Philippines. Among the Pupinidae, we have the peculiar Raphaulus and Hybocystis (Fig. 205) , a very remarkable form, of which another species occurs at Perak. Two Helicina mark the most westward extension of the genus on the mainland. In the extreme north of Upper Burmah, Indian and Chinese forms intermingle.
Fig. 205.—Hybocystis gravida Bens. Young and adult. ”

“ It is much more probable that encystment is merely an adaptation to continual changes in the external conditions of life, such as drought and frost, and perhaps also the want of food which arises from the over-population of small areas. The same phenomenon is known in certain low Crustacea—the Daphnidae—which possess an ephippium or protective case for their winter-eggs. This case is only developed after a certain definite number of generations has been run through, an event which may happen at any time in the year in species living in pools which are liable to be often dried-up ”

“ Even the casual observer, to whom all insects are bugs, cannot help but be struck by the great diversity and number of the fossorial Hymenoptera of the plains. Water is often inaccessible, trees there are few or none, and only in places is the vegetation at all abundant. A much larger proportion of insects, hence, find it necessary to live or breed in holes in the ground, than is the case in more favored localities. Especially is this the case with the Hymenoptera, great numbers and many species of which thus breed in excavations made by themselves. ”

“ The Scyphistoma of Nausithoe presents us with the most {318}remarkable example of this mode of reproduction (Fig. 144) , as it forms an elaborate branching colony in the substance of certain species of sponges. The ectoderm secretes a chitinous perisarc, similar to that of the hydrosome stage of many of the Hydrozoa, and consequently Stephanoscyphus (Spongicola) , as this Scyphistoma was called, was formerly placed among the Gymnoblastea. ”

“ Every fish that we find in the strata--to which I have been referring--can be identified and placed in one of the orders which exist at the present day. There is not known to be a single ordinal form of insect extinct. There are only two orders extinct among the Crustacea. There is not known to be an extinct order of these creatures, the parasitic and other worms; but there are two, not to say three, absolutely extinct orders of this class, the Echinodermata; out of all the orders of the Coelenterata and Protozoa only one, the Rugose Corals. ”

“ As soon as the hymenium has parted with its seed, which falls from it in the form of fine dust, the fungus, collapsing, either withers on its stem, or else dissolves into a black liquid and so escapes to the earth. In such funguses as have not a volva, the basilar or primary nucleus shoots up at once in the form of a cone, and a little later presents at its apex the rudiments of a receptacle or head ”

“ The young larval forms of a species never show the markings of a later phyletic stage than the older larval forms; the development takes the same course in all species, only making a greater advance in the same direction in some than in others.
Thus, Nicæa and Euphorbiæ have advanced to the seventh phyletic stage, Zygophylli and Hippophaës only to the third, and some specimens of Zygophylli to the fourth. But at whatever phyletic stage the ontogeny of a species may terminate, the young larval stages always display the older phyletic stages. ”

“ The fact that in a majority of instances it is possible to trace an intimate connection between the surroundings of a larva and its organization proves in the clearest way that the characters of the majority of existing larval forms of insects have owed their origin to secondary adaptations. A few instances will illustrate this point:—In the simplest types of metamorphosis, e.g. those of the Orthoptera genuina, the larva has precisely the same habits as the adult. We find that a caterpillar form is assumed by phytophagous larvæ amongst the Lepidoptera, Hymenoptera, and Coleoptera. ”

“ The capsule of the mature zygote ruptures about the tenth day and the sporozoites are thrown off into the body cavity. They make their way to the salivary glands and thence, by way of the veneno-salivary duct, in the hypopharynx, they are introduced into the circulation of the person bitten by the mosquito, and start a nonsexual cycle. As the sexual life takes place in the mosquito, this insect is the definitive host and man only the intermediate host. The sexual cycle or sporogony in the mosquito takes about ten to twelve days. ”

“ When the insect is not examined till the third day, the contained parasites will probably manifest marked signs of disintegration—and possibly every indication of life will have disappeared from many of the specimens. After the third or fourth day I have not seen any active specimens of these entozoa in the stomach or in any part of the alimentary canal of the mosquito; those which remain have undergone more or less fatty degeneration, and are readily stained with eosin, which, as far as my experience goes, is not the case so long as they are alive and active. ”

“ These organs differ from the statorhabs of the Hydrozoa in having, usually, a cavity in the axial endoderm; but as they are undoubtedly specially modified marginal tentacles, they are strictly homologous in the two classes. In nearly all the Scyphozoa these organs are protected by a hood or fold formed from the free margin of the umbrella, and this character, although not of great morphological importance, serves to distinguish the common species from the Craspedote Medusae. ”

“ Effect on health There is much complaint of the unwholesome conditions produced by the water hyacinth, particularly in the towns of Palatka and Sanford. While the plant itself is not directly injurious to health, the accumulation of large masses of decaying vegetable matter on the banks and in lagoons probably affects the general healthfulness of a region. When the wind blows steadily iu one direction for some time, it piles many of the plants upou the shore, where they are left to rot. ”