92 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP, 



{the white one is more frequent at a lower elevation). 

 Further on, however, towards the Scheideck, it gives 

 place to a variety of Finns viontana, the mountain 

 fir, known as pumilio, a weird dwarfish-looking tree ; 

 its stems frequently twisted and decumbent, and 

 branches hung with festoons of grey lichen (tZf«m 

 plicata) The plantations on Bagshot Heath will 

 hardly bear comparison with an Alpine pine-forest, 

 they are more like those which cover the sandy 

 plains of northern Germany. The mission of pine- 

 trees is to transform a rocky mineral detritus into a 

 fertile vegetable mould, and a sandy soil is not suit- 

 able for their development. — E. de C. 



Buxus SEMPERVIRENS. — Your correspondent, 

 Mr. Dennis, is right in his conjecture as to M. Guizot's 

 quotation. Asser's words are : " Natus est /Elfred 

 in villa regia quae dicitur Wanating in ilia paga qute 

 nominatur Berrocscire ; quae paga taliter vocatur a 

 Berrocsilva, iibi buxus abiindantissime nasciturP Asser 

 wrote about 894. In the " glossary " of /Elfric (who 

 died A.D. 1005) our modern English word "box " is 

 given as the A.-S. equivalent of buxus. Boswell, 

 A.-S. Dictionary, gives it as "box," or " boxtreon." 

 But all this will not prove, unfortunately, that the 

 box was not introduced by the Romans, and the 

 name itself may well have come from them also. — 

 F. Bennett, Walton Manor Lodge, Oxford. 



GEOLOGY. 



Marine Drifts in North Wales. — This is the 

 subject of a paper recently read before the Geological 

 Society by D. Mackintosh, F.G.S. The author re- 

 marks on the importance of the marine drift-area, 

 especially as regards its great extent, and the absence, 

 so far as yet known, of similar high-level drifts (be- 

 tween 1000 and 1350 feet above the sea) in conti- 

 nental Europe, Asia, or North America. He lately 

 traced the drift-area two miles farther south than he 

 had done during former explorations, its entire length 

 being little short of five miles. In this paper he gives 

 a detailed description of the numerous exposures of 

 rounder gravel and stratified sand between the north 

 end of Minera Mountain and Llangollen Vale, which, 

 in some places, spread out into large flat expanses, 

 but more frequently assume the form of knolls (fre- 

 quently in perched positions), which rise up from 

 beneath a covering of clay or peat. He dwells on the 

 probable origin of the knoll-shaped configuration, 

 including the theoiy of the precipitation of the drift 

 from the stranding of floating ice, and the forcing up 

 of previously deposited drift by the same agency, 

 but inclines to the idea of the knolls having been 

 chiefly accumulated by sea-currents. The author 

 then describes several large areas in North Wales in 

 which he could find no trace of rounded gravel, enters 

 into a consideration of the causes of these driftless 



areas, and discusses the relative merits of the theory 

 of their having been temporarily occupied by land- 

 ice, and of the theory of non-exposure to tempestuous 

 seas, or seas capable of rounding stones. He then 

 gives an account of the discovery of granite boulders, 

 associated with partially rounded drift, on the summit 

 of Moel Wnion, 1900 feet above the sea (near Aber, 

 North Wales) ; and endeavours to show that, while 

 they could have been readily transported by floating 

 ice (probably from Scotland, certainly not from 

 Cumberland), the flow of land-ice from Snowdon, 

 according to Ramsay, along the north face of Moel 

 Wnion, must have prevented the access of northern 

 land-ice to the summit of the latter mountain, while 

 land-ice flowing from Cumberland to Anglesey (ac- 

 cording to Ramsay) could not have been crossed by 

 land-ice flowing south from Scotland to Moel Wnion. 

 After referring to the outward direction of stria: on 

 the north coast of North Wales, he concludes by 

 giving a summary of facts and inferences. In the 

 discussion which followed. Professor Hughes thought 

 that the drifts of Derwen and Moel Uchaf were to be 

 distinguished from those of the Minera region. The 

 former were in the Bala lake-trough, and striations 

 showed that there were local peculiarities in the 

 glacial phenomena. He thought that the terraces 

 mentioned by the author were connected with a pond- 

 ing back of the Clwyd. The marine drift ran up to 

 the Elwy Valley far from the sea. The Minera drifts 

 were obviously a coast-deposit. The shells in these 

 beds could not have existed when land-ice came 

 down to the sea from the great mountain districts. 

 Flints were always present, iron-stained, as if derived 

 from flint gravel. He thought it would be worth 

 calculating the percentage of flints in the gravels, 

 tracing them from this district to E. and N.E. He 

 regarded these deposits as postglacial, and thought 

 there was a period of great ice extension, then of a 

 melting back of the local ice during submergence, 

 and that these Minera drifts were the result of the 

 winnowing of the Boulder-clay. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Scarcity of Wasps. — In the co. Wicklow, in 

 the spring before the late frosts, queen wasps were 

 nearly innumerable, but after the frosts they all dis- 

 appeared, and I have not seen a nest either in the 

 ground or on the trees. Last year both kinds were 

 plentiful everywhere. — G. IT. K. 



Objects in Aquarium. — In reply to query of 

 "Lady Naturalist," in January number, 1882, as to 

 " Objects in Aquarium." From the description, I think 

 the objects in your aquarium are some species of 

 "Cyclops." They are very active, and occur both 

 in salt and fresh water. The body is somewhat pear- 

 shaped and more or less transparent in the middle ; the 

 digestive system shows as a dark line. In front are 

 two pairs of antennae, the first of which are very long. 

 At their base is placed a single median eye (often 



