GOSSAMER, a light filamentous substance, which often fills the atmosphere to a remarkable degree duringline weather in the latter part of autumn, or is spread over the wholo face of the ground, stretching from leaf to leaf, and from plant to plant, loaded with entangled dew-drops, which glisten and sparkle in the sunshine. Various opinions were formerly entertained concerning the nature and origin of gossamer, but it is now sufficiently ascertained to be produced by small spiders, not, however, uy any single species, but by several, not improbably many; species; whilst it is also said to be produced by young, and not by mature spiders, a circumstance which, if placed beyond doubt, would help to account for its appearance at a particular season of the year. The production of gossamer by spiders was first demonstrated by the observations of Dr. Hulse and Dr. Lister in the 17th c., bat these observations did not for a long time meet with clue regard and credit, particularly amongst the naturalists of continental Europe. It is not yet known if the gossamer spread over the surface of the-earth is produced by the same species of spider which produce that seen in the air, or falling as if from the clouds. Why gossamer threads or webs are produced the spiders at all, is also a question not very easily answered. That they are meant merely for entangling insect prey, does not seem probable ; the extreme eagerness which some of tire small spiders known to produce them show for water to drink, has led to the supposition, that the dew-drops which collect on them may ire one of the objects of the formation of those on the sur face of the ground, whilst it has been also supposed that they may afford a more rapid and convenient mode of transit from place to place than the-employment of the legs of the animal. As to the gossamers in the air, conjecture is still more at a loss. They are
certainly not accidentally wafted up from the as might be supposed; the spiders which produce them are wafted up along with them; but whether for the mere ment an aerial excursion, or in order to shift from place to place, is not clear, although the latter supposition is, on the whole, the most probable. The threads of gossamer are so delicate that a single one cannot be seen unless the sun shines on it; but being driven about by the wind, they are often beaten together into thicker threads and flakes. They are often to be felt on the face when they are visible. The spiders which produce these threads shoot them out from their spinnerets, a viscid fluid being ejected with great force, which presently becomes a thread; sometimes several such threads are produced at once in a radiating form, and these being caught by the ascend ing current of heated air, are borne up, and the spider along with them. It has been said that the spider has even some power of guiding in the air the web by which it is wafted up.