HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



43 



** Bucky-biiar," and its fruit, " Buckies " ; Foxglove 

 (Digitalis fm-pirca), "Fairy-fingers"; Watercress 

 (Nasturtium officinale), "Water-grass"; Aiiacharis al- 

 siiiastrum, "Cats-tails"; Irish or upright Yew ( 7(?.v//j- 

 Ilibcritica), " Palm," probably from its customary use 

 on Palm Sunday by the peasantry ; Couch-grass 

 (Triticumrepens), "Scutch-grass;" Iris, "Flagons"; 

 Hart's-tongue Fern [Scolopendriujn vulgarc), " Fox- 

 tongue " ; Earth-nut (Bittiiiim flcxnosum), "Pig- 

 nut " ; Wood-sorrel [Oxalis acetosclla), " Sheep- 

 sorrel"; CoTavaonSoxrel [Rutnex acetosa), " Cuckoo's- 

 sorrel " ; Wild Hyacinth [Agr aphis tmtans), " Blue- 

 rocket"; Vennywort [Cotyledon umbilicus), "Penny- 

 grass"; Plantain [Plantago), "Ripple-grass"; 

 Reed-mace (Typha), " Black-head."— ^ IT. H. 



GEOLOGY. 



Liverpool Geological Association. — We are 

 pleased to receive a copy of the first annual report of 

 the above Society, which shows it has commenced 

 very successfully, and promises to continue so. The 

 promoters are chiefly members of the Liverpool 

 School of Science. Among the papers read last year, 

 in addition to the President's address, are the follow- 

 ing : — "The Giant's Causeway," by A. Quilliam ; 

 "The Rise and Progress of Geological Discovery," 

 by O. W. Jeffs ; " Chmatic Changes," by T. Brennan ; 

 " The Lower Carboniferous Deposits of Anglesea," 

 by Isaac E. George, &c. 



Geologists' Association.— The Proceedings of 

 the above Society for October (now edited by Pro- 

 fessor Blake) contain the following papers : "On 

 a continuous Section of the Oligocene strata from 

 Cohvell Bay to Headon Hill," by Professor Blake; 

 "On the Geology of the Vale of Wardour," by 

 W. H. Hudleston (President) ; "On Conifers," by 

 J. S. Gardiner ; with notes of the various excursions. 



The Polyzoa of the Wenlock Shales, 

 Wenlock Limestone and Shales over the 

 Wenlock Limestone. — This was the subject of 

 a hard-worked paper by Mr. G. R. Vine, an old 

 contributor to the subject in our Journal. The author 

 has received from Mr. Maw about i \ hundredweight 

 of materials washed out of the Wenlock deposits of 

 Shropshire, representing the contents of from 6-8 

 tons of unwashed material. From this material he 

 extracted the specimens of plants, Actinozoa, Echino- 

 dermata, Crustacea, and Polyzoa, and he gave a 

 tabular synopsis of the species and their distrilmtion, 

 with the addition of types from the Wenlock Lime- 

 stone and of the species of Brachiopoda referred to 

 in a paper by Messrs. Maw and Davidson in the 

 "Geological Magazine" for i88r. With regard to 

 the Polyzoa the author remarked that below the 

 Cretaceous series the two great divisions of Chilo- 

 tosmata and Cyclostomata do not hold good, and 



suggested that the classification of Palaeozoic Polyzoa 

 should be based on the arrangement and character 

 of the cells in combination with habit. The forms 

 characterised in the present paper were : — Stotnatopara 

 dissimilis. Vine, and vars. dongata and coinpressa, 

 Ascodictyon stellatum, Nich. and Eth., A. radiciforinc 

 sp. n., A. filifornie, sp. n. ?, Spiropora regularis, 

 sp. n., S. intermedia. Vine, Diastopora cofisimilis, 

 Lonsd., Ceriopora, Goldf., Hornera crassa, Lonsd., 

 //. ? delicatnla, sp. n., Polypora ? problcmatica, sp. n., 

 Fcnestella prisca, Lonsd., Glauconome disticha, Goldf., 

 Ptilodiciya lanceolata, Lonsd., P. Lonsdalci sp. n,. 

 (= P. lanceolata, auct.), P. scalpellum, Lonsd., 

 P. interporosa, Vine, and P.minuta, Vine. 



The Zones of the Blackdown Beds and 

 their Correlation with those at Haldon, 

 WITH A list of the Fossils. — This was the title 

 of a paper read before the Geological Society by the 

 Rev. W. Downes, B.A. F.G.S., an old contributor 

 to " Science Gossip." The author, after some 

 remarks on the inexact way in which fossils had been 

 collected from or referred to the Blackdown beds, 

 and a sketch of the literature of the subject, passed 

 on to a correlation of the Blackdown beds with 

 deposits in other localities. He pointed out that they 

 do not contain a sufUcient number of species in 

 common with the Marne de Bracquegnies to justify 

 an identification with this. He compared them with 

 the Haldon beds, and by a comparison of the 

 fossils bed by bed, showed that of 196 Blackdown 

 species (omitting a i&\N corals) 50 occur at Haldon ; 

 the latter section, however, represents not the whole, 

 but only the upper part of the former, nine beds in 

 the lower part of it being without representatives at 

 Haldon. Here also the higher beds contain a thin 

 band, distinguished by a distinct and all but unique 

 fauna (the zone containing the corals described by 

 Professor Duncan). Comparing the Blackdown beds 

 with lists of Cretaceous fossils from other localities, 

 it would appear that we have neither exclusively 

 Upper-Greensand forms at the top, nor exclusively 

 Lower-Greensand forms at the bottom, nor exclusively 

 Gault forms in the middle. 



The Rocks of the Channel Islands,— At a 

 recent meeting of the Cambridge Philosophical 

 Society, Professor Liveing read a paper on the above' 

 subject. The author described the island of Serk as 

 consisting of a table-land composed mainly of 

 hornblende-schist, intersected by many volcanic dykes 

 which, by the action of the sea and weather, have pro- 

 duced deep ravines and curious caverns. Besides the 

 dykes there are some large veins, filled up chiefly by 

 debris from the sides, of which one, from the facility 

 it has afforded for disintegration, has produced the 

 Coupee and another the Havre Gosselin. The strati- 

 fication dips away from a point near the Port du 

 Moulin ; and above the hornblende-schist lies at both 

 the N. and S. extremities of the island and at tlie W . 



