HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP. 



179 



shores of Lamlash Rosa spinosissima was freely 

 growing ; on Holy Island, opposite the bay, Arcto- 

 staphylos uva-ursi was common — at least, so we were 

 informed. The walk home by the coast proved 

 productive, Glaux maritima being plentiful, while 

 the high cliffs, in which were diagonal rifts, yielded 

 fine specimens of Cotyledon Umbilicus and Allium 

 ursinum. Among the debris at the base of the 

 cliffs, moist with the water trickling from above, 

 the beautiful Paruassia palustris grew in plenty, 

 and nearer Brodick the little Pinguicula lusilanica 

 appeared, like its larger brother, having insects ad- 

 hering to it. Large beds of Iris Pseud-Acorus filled 

 the more swampy parts, which also yielded some 

 good carices. Cochlearia anglica, Triglocldin mari- 

 timum, and Samolus Valerandi were frequent, and 

 hanging down the cliffs were some magnificent 

 specimens of Hypericum Andoscemum ; (Enanthe 

 crocata, and fist ulosa grew near the cliffs. Armenia 

 vulgaris was very common. It was a most de- 

 lightful evening, and sitting in the grounds of the 

 Douglas we watched the lovely tints gathering 

 again round Goatfell, while the sea lay so placid 

 and still, reflecting with lake-like preciseness the 

 cliffs and houses of Brodick. Our specimens, how- 

 ever, did not include Helianthemum or Ajuga, and 

 so we concluded we had not looked close enough, 

 or that we had come to the wrong Arran ; for was 

 there not a rock somewhere in Galway Bay desig- 

 nated by a similar name ? Well, even if we had 

 made a mistake, we felt grateful to the idea that 

 had caused us to come to the Scotch Arran. The 

 sky promised well for the morrow aud the ascent 

 of Goatfell ; " ower well," one might have said, as 

 in the morning on looking out of window to the 

 mountain, the window seemed of ground glass, or 

 else had altered its position, so strangely circum- 

 scribed had become the view. Boiling clouds of 

 mist going by explained the matter, the weather, 

 with its usual capriciousness, having gone in for a 

 chauge. So we were obliged to leave the island 

 without ascending its highest point, and therefore 

 started off " to fresh scenes and pastures new." 



G. C. DftucE. 



OUB COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS, AND 

 WHERE TO FIND THEM. 



No. II. 



By J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., F.G.S., etc. 



OF the many thousands of species of fossils 

 which have been found in the rocks of Great 

 Britain, from the most ancient to the most recent, 

 no group so well distinguishes a formation as that 

 popularly termed Graptolites. They are peculiar to 

 the Cambrian and Silurian systems, and have not 

 hitherto beenfound elsewhere; being most abundant, 



however, in the Lower Silurians. Wherever Lower 

 Silurian rocks have been explored, if they have been 

 unmetamorphosed, so that the fossil remains have not 

 been obliterated, Graptolites have been generally 

 found in large numbers. Not unfrequently they are 

 so abundant as to form a kind of carbonaceous 

 matter in the rocks where they are inclosed. Their 

 geographical distribution is exceedingly great, and, 

 as they mark a geological horizon, no other group 

 of fossils is more valuable in enabling us to arrive 

 at the age of the rock-system where they are found. 



To the palaeontologist, and zoologist also, the 

 Graptolites are unusually interesting, on account of 

 their resemblance to, aud yet marked deviation in 

 structure from, a well-known and widely-distributed 

 living group of marine objects. Moreover, even 

 among the Graptolites themselves, there is a strik- 

 ing differentiation; a "differencing," however, 

 which has, nevertheless, a foundation of resem- 

 blance to start from. More papers have been writ- 

 ten about the Graptolites than any other fossils, not 

 even excepting Trilobites and Ammonites, and not a 

 few angry spirits have come to wordy blows about 

 them ! This difference of opinion has arisen from 

 the endeavour to stretch or expand palaeontological 

 facts so as to fit into the natural history scheme 

 we have formed for the purpose of classifying and 

 arranging recent animals. Now that the theory of 

 evolution is gaining ground among our best natu- 

 ralists, let us hope that its first Christian effect will 

 be to remove all accessory causes of "bad blood," 

 by pointing out that, however perfect our existing 

 scheme of classification may be for living forms, it 

 is unphilosophical to expect that it will fit with 

 equal accuracy those of long bygone periods, when 

 animals frequently possessed characters that since 

 then have been divided among different genera. 

 Indeed, it would appear as if the Graptolites were, 

 in some respects, a class of those " missing links " 

 connecting two great divisions of animal life now 

 distinct from each other. 



The young geological student finds himself in no 

 small degree perplexed when he first endeavours to 

 find out the zoological relations of the Graptolites. 

 Page refers part of tbem to the true " Sea-pens " 

 {Peiuiatula and T'irgularia), with which, however, 

 they have nothing in common, except the mere 

 external resemblance between the double Grapto- 

 lites and them. The Pennatulidce are nearly related 

 to those familiar objects of our coasts popularly 

 called "Dead Men's Fingers" {Alcyonium digita- 

 tuni). Other writers place the Graptolites among 

 the Polyzoa, or " Sea-mats." They are now, how- 

 ever, regarded as undoubtedly Hydrozoa, and very 

 nearly related to those "Sea-firs" (Sertularia?), which 

 any observer may fiud grouped in diminutive 

 groves on the outer surfaces of old oyster-shells in 

 any j fishmonger's shop. They differ from the 

 Sertularians in some marked particulars; among 



