236 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



leaf-like involucre ; this variation does not seem to 

 be uncommon, as I found two or three in 1SS9, and 

 several this year. Everlasting pea ; on dissecting a 

 flower of this p!ant, which was not in any way ex- 

 traordinary in outward appearance, it was found to 

 contain two pistils. Digitalis purpurea ; this flower 

 was the bottom one of the raceme, and consisted 

 of calyx ordinary, containing one green abortion 

 very much like the tubular petals of Helleborus fostidus, 

 one large portion of corolla, which might stand for 

 the lip of an ordinary flower, of usual colour, but 

 having a ragged, green, leaf-like margin, and con- 

 taining four stamens upon its inner surface ; one 

 smaller piece, which might correspond to the other 

 part, when united in the usual bell and not split as 

 in this specimen. The calyx also contained a perfect 

 axiliary peduncle bearing apparently perfect flower- 

 buds as usually occur at the base of the terminal 

 inflorescence. Fasciations : Polyanthus, peduncle 

 about three-eighths inch wide, with between forty and 

 fifty pedicels bearing flowers. Chrysanthemum leu- 

 canthemum, peduncle bearing two flower-buds. 

 Scabiosa arvensis, first intemode, ordinary ; second, 

 three stems united by their inner edges ; third, of 

 two stems also united ; fourth, ordinary with flower 

 at apex. Dipsaciis fullonum : this variety seems to 

 be always more or less in the habit of sporting, and 

 I have found this year several different forms, one in 

 which the usual involucral bracts were changed into 

 leaves, containing besides the usual-sized head four 

 smaller ones, also a fasciated stem with two heads 

 joined in one. — Edwin E, Turner, Coggeshall, Essex. 



GEOLOGY, &c. 



Teignmouth Peebles : Whence do they 

 come? Of what are they composed. — Our 

 rocks are coloured by red oxide of iron. Near 

 Brixham and Berry Head, a few miles away, there 

 are iron-mines in the red rocks, close to the sea. 

 Our beautiful coral madrepores and spongy pebbles 

 are more or less coloured through, or in their centres, 

 by the colour of the rock in which they are im- 

 bedded, and when polished, it gives them that lovely 

 and striking appearance so admired by collectors. 

 What is most singular, many after being polished a 

 day or two, the corals and spongy-forms, begin to 

 show so distinct that you cannot but admire their 

 beautiful structure. The very valuable ones are now 

 scarce, but a great many varieties are to be found at 

 the "Parson and Clerk" Rocks, and on all the 

 Beaches, from the Ness Rocks to Babbacombe 

 Beach. There is also a wonderful variety of mineral 

 rock in our " Trias," as quartz royalites, quartzites, 

 conglomerates, felsite, nail-headed quartz, granites, 

 various porphyries, and murchisonites. A great 

 many of these metamorphic pebbles were picked by 

 the ice during the glacial period, while snow and 



ice covered the land. Icebergs freighted with rocks 

 from other lands flowed along our shores, and dropped 

 their burden of foreign stones down to sea-bottom, 

 which forms such a deposit as we have in our rocks, 

 and being denuded by marine currents, might well 

 yield us such a variety of pebbles as we find on our 

 beach. ,The exact age of our rocks and beach 

 pebbles is not yet made out. The subject offers an 

 interesting study to the geologist. Our own surmise 

 is that there must be veins of the various kinds of 

 minerals which form pebbles on our coast. I have 

 myself discovered several veins where many of the 

 minerals come from, not many miles away, also 

 where many of the corals and spongy-forms are to 

 be found, the same in form as those from our Trias 

 red conglomerate rocks found as pebbles. I have 

 found the stromatoporas of spongy-forms at the 

 Bishopsteignton Quarries, also distinct ones at a 

 quarry at Kingsteignton. The quartz royalites, 

 murchisonites and quartzites are to be found right 

 away to the Haldon Hills. The black porphyries 

 called " Black Jack" are found in abundance on the 

 Carew estate at Hackham, the feather madrepore 

 (Favosites cervicornis) at White Rock, Bradley 

 Woods, in abundance ; the bird's-eye madrepore 

 [Amphipora ramosd) at the same place, and in a 

 quarry at Kingsteignton, where there are fine blocks 

 quarried out of the same. The angle star coral 

 {Cyathophyllum hexagonum) and Heliolites perosa, 

 Smithia bowerbanki, Accrvularia limitata and penta- 

 gona are found at Ramsley and Wolborough quarries, 

 and places I could mention where there is a great 

 deposit of stone, such as some of the pebbles found 

 on our beach. — A. J. R. Sclater, M.C.S., Bank 

 Street, Teignmouth. 



Liverpool Geological Society.— The last 

 number of the "Proceedings of the Liverpool 

 Geological Society " contains the following papers : 

 " Life of the English Trias " (Presidential Address), 

 by II. C. Beasley ; " What Becomes of the Water 

 Ejected from Volcanoes," by the same ; "Geological 

 Notes on an Excursion to Anglesey " ; "Note on a 

 Boulder met with in driving a Sewer-Heading in 

 Liverpool," and " Note on Some Mammalian Bones 

 found in the blue clay below the peat-and-forest 

 bed at the Alt Mouth," all by T. Mellard Reade ; 

 " Notes of Glacial Moraines," by L. Cumming ; 

 " Remarks' on the Contorted Schists of Anglesey," 

 by Dr. C. Ricketts ; " Notes of Examination of 

 Water and Sediment from the River Arveiron, near 

 Argentiere," by E. Dixon and P. Holland; "Note 

 on the Examination of Some Anglesey Rocks," by 

 the same ; " Recent Discovery of a Bone Cave at 

 Deep Dale, near Buxton," by J. J. Fitzpatrick. 



The Origin of Gold. — Professor Lobley read 

 an interesting paper on this subject before the 

 Geological Section of the British Association. He 



