BIOLOGY. 273 



The possession of biconcave vertebras is not opposed to this view, 

 as, although most living Lacertilia have concave-convex vertebrae, 

 biconcave vertebras, much more deeply excavated than in this :m- 

 imal, are found in the existing geckos. 



It presents not a single character approximating it toward the 

 type of the Permian Protorosauria, or the Triassic Rhjtnchosaurus 

 and other allies of that genus, or to the niesozoic Dinosauria. 

 Whether the age of the deposit in which it occurs be Triassic or 

 Devonian, it is a striking example of a persistent type of animal 

 organization. Geological Magazine. 



GROWTH OF LYCOPERDON. 



The observations of M. Baudrimont on the growth of Lycoper- 

 don giganteum lead to very interesting conclusions. In 14 days 

 after appearing at the surface of the ground it had acquired 

 a considerable size. When plucked it had begun to decrease 

 visibly, but its circumference was 1 m. 4 c. on its greatest diame- 

 ter, and its weight 3 kilo. 500 grams. After having been com- 

 pletely dried in an oven it weighed 305 grams, showing that 

 before desiccation it contained 91.28 per cent, of water. Analy- 

 sis has proved that nitrogen represented 8.96 per cent, of the 

 weight of it in the dried, or .78 per cent, in its normal state. If we 

 suppose all this nitrogen to have been in the state of albumen, 

 which contains 17.70 per cent, of nitrogen and 53 per cent, of car- 

 bon, the 305 grams of lycoperdon contained about 174 grams of 

 carbon. We have even 142 grams by adding the carbon con- 

 tained in the non-nitrogenized substances, its cellulose, etc. The 

 142 grams of carbon represent 520.66 grams or 265 litres of car- 

 bonic acid, and hence 530.000 litres of air. It is from this enor- 

 mous volume of air, equal to a cube of 8 metres linear edge each 

 way, that the fungus must have drawn the 142 grams of carbon 

 necessary for its development of 14 days, this is at the rate 

 per day of 10.15 grams of carbon, 18.9 litres of carbonic acid, and 

 37.800 litres of air, it is upon nearly half a litre of air that the 

 plant must have operated per second to effect the total extraction 

 of the carbonic acid which was in it. By what means can we 

 estimate the prodigious activity that this inferior plant could 

 develop to be able to take in 14 days all the carbonic acid 

 belonging to 530.000 litres of air? How astonishing must be the 

 delicacy of the absorptive organs which seize on its flight an elas- 

 tic fluid disseminated in such an enormous mass, continually mov- 

 ing with great rapidity! But this is not all. The mean circum- 

 ference of the fungus was .990 m. ; its volume more than 16,- 

 000,000 of cubic millimetres; and its mass formed of cellules 1 

 millimetre long at most, and one three-hundredth of a mil- 

 limetre in thickness, between which are placed the reproductive 

 spores. The total number of the cellules exceeds 14,000,000,000 ; 

 and, since the development lasts 14 days, a million of cellules 

 had to be produced every 4 hours, 12,000 cellules per second ! 

 Just let one stroke of the pendulum, and then another, be heard, 

 and conceive, if you can, that in that space of time the fungus 



