HARDWICKE'S SCI EN CE- GOSSIP. 



233 



charlock and several other plants will lie dormant, if 

 buried too deep in the soil, until such time as they are 

 brought near enough to the surface, when they will 

 spring. Amongst others may be mentioned the com- 

 mon Poppy (Papacer Rhocas), which in some places, 

 where it had not been seen for a very long period, 

 when the soil has been turned up to a greater depth 

 than usual, will spring up in the greatest profusion. 

 But as soon as the surface gets covered with other 

 plants it disappears, and remains in a dormant state 

 until circumstances are favourable to its reappear- 

 ance. Our highest authorities consider the above 

 two plants only as colonists in this country. Their 

 introduction must date a long way back, as they 

 will sometimes turn up where there is no appearance 

 of former cultivation, and also from a greater depth 

 in the soil than cultivation usually reaches. When 

 the railways were newly made in this district (the 

 South-east of Scotland) the sides of many of the 

 " cuttings " were literally covered with poppies, 

 more particularly when the cut was through any of 

 the gravelly "knowes" which are frequently met 

 with in the district. — A. £., K, 



GEOLOGY. 



Ox the Distribution of the Gkaptolites in 

 the Lower Ludlow Rocks, Ludlow. — At the 

 meeting of the British Association, Mr. J. Hop- 

 kinson, F.G.S., &c, in speaking on this subject, drew 

 attention to the special interest attached to the 

 Ludlow Bocks in connection with investigations on 

 the vertical distribution of the graptolites as being 

 the formation in which they apparently died out. 

 It was shown that several species of Monograptus 

 abounded in the lowest beds of the Lower Ludlow 

 when these lowest beds did not, as they did near 

 Stokesay, form a limestone divided from the 

 "VVenlock limestone by a few feet of shales. 

 Among other characteristics of the strata was found 

 Aymestry limestone, which the author considered 

 formed a portion only of the Lower Ludlow rocks, 

 not being constantly present, and sometimes having 

 beds of Lower Ludlow shales of considerable thick- 

 ness between its layers. He concluded by showing 

 the dependence of the fossil fauna of these rocks on 

 the physical conditions of the Lower Ludlow seas, 

 the fossils being only locally distributed, and varying 

 slightly in their horizons according to the nature of 

 the sediment deposited, the graptolites especially 

 being influenced by the changes of sea-level, &c, 

 to which their final extinction was considered to be 

 most probably due. 



The Discovery of a Submerged Forest in 

 the Estuary of the Orwell.— In the Geological 

 Section of the British Association Mr. J. E. Taylor, 

 F.G.S., discoursed on this subject, and said his 



attention had been drawn to some peaty material 

 which came from the bed of the river Orwell during 

 the excavation of a new channel. Further investi- 

 gation proved it to be 7 ft. to 9 ft. in thickness, full 

 of recumbent trees, such as dwarf oak, pine, alder, 

 &c, the lower part resting on a marl of fresh-water 

 shells, &c, underneath which was the solid chalk. 

 The peat was buried beneath 4 ft. or 6 ft. of black 

 river-mud. A series of thirteen excavations and 

 dredging conducted last November proved that the 

 submerged forest extended for seven or eight miles. 

 The peat bed, on an average, was about 9 ft. (in 

 some places 14 ft.) below low- water neap tides. 

 The tide rose 12 ft. to 14 ft., and therefore, even it 

 the old forest had grown at the sea-level, it must 

 have stood about 30 ft. lower than we now find it. 

 Mr. Taylor then referred to other post-glacial forest 

 beds along the eastern coast, and expressed his 

 belief that they represented the last stage of the 

 continental condition of England before the depres- 

 sion took place which brought the North Sea over 

 the low-lying plains, and so formed the present 

 German Ocean. Some fine perfect teeth of the 

 mammoth (Elephas primigenius) were found in the 

 Orwell forest-bed, and exhibited. 



Fossil Salamanders. — M. Gaudry, in a recent 

 number of the Bulletin of the Geological Society of 

 France, describes some new genera of fossil sala- 

 manders from the Upper Coal-measures of Meuse 

 and Millcry, France. Remains of the skeletons of 

 seventeen individuals were found, ranging in length 

 from an inch and a half to nearly three inches. 

 There are twenty-nine vertebrae, three cervical, ten 

 dorsal, eight lumbar, and eight very small caudal. 

 The ribs are very short, and there are only traces 

 of a pelvis, owing probably to its having been in- 

 completely ossified. The fore and hind limbs are 

 about equal in length, and each four-fingered. The 

 name given to this new form is Protnton petrolei. 

 It is nearly related to Pelion Lyelli, of the Carboni- 

 ferous formation in Ohio, U.S. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Basalt. — Permit me to thank Mr. F. W. Rudler 

 for his letter in Science-Gossip, No. 12S. He 

 allows that it is dilficult to trace a beginning for 

 phosphates in igneous rocks ; so that there seems no 

 reason to say, as the Athenceum, No. 2,479, said, 

 that igneous rocks are the probable source of phos- 

 phates in sedimentary rocks. As regards this ques- 

 tion, I am at present quite satisfied, — basalt remains 

 where it was. I am referred to able geologists' dis- 

 cussions. I have been doing so for some years, and 

 have looked over vast areas of basaltic rocks. 

 Science tells me basalt is a rock of igneous origin. 

 I have denied this ; last in the Geographical Maga- 

 zine for August and September, 1874. I do not 

 deny that sedimentary basalts may be converted 

 into lava, or that, after being fused, they may return 



