HARD Wl CK E 'S SCIENCE - G SSI P. 



II 



collections of natural history in this and other 

 countries. 



The Gourd and its varieties may have sprung from 

 one original species, and, like other plants, have 

 been greatly improved by cultivation. De CandoUe, 

 in discussing the history and origin of cultivated 

 plants, refers all the squashes and pumpkins to the 

 Old World, but not to India, because they have no 

 name for them in Sanscrit. Some American bota- 

 nists believe that the Pumpkin and its varieties are 

 indigenous to that continent, as the Indians declare 

 gourds had been a common food among them long 

 before the Europeans discovered that country ; and 

 Champlain, who, in 1604, made a voyage along the 

 coast of what is now the State .of Maine, found the 

 inhabitants cultivating citrouilles (gourds) along 

 with maize. Pickering, in his "Races of Men," 

 says that specimens of a small variety of gourd 

 were exhumed from an ancient cemetery in Peru, 

 like those which ai'e still seen in the markets of 

 Lima. M. Naudin, an indefatigable and distin- 

 guished botanist, has, during many years, observed 

 and experimented upon all the known forms of 

 gourds, collected from all parts of the globe and 

 cultivated at the Jardin des Plantes. He reduces 

 them to six species, only three of which, with their 

 numerous varieties, are used as esculents (viz., 

 Cucurbita maxima, the large yellow gourd ; C. Pepo, 

 the Pumpkin, which he considers as probably the 

 most variable plant in the world ; and C. moschaia, 

 the Water-melon). An interesting paper on this 

 subject will be found in the American Joiirnal of 

 Science and Art, 2nd ser., vol. xxiv., and also in 

 Darwin's " Variation of Animals and Plants under 

 Domestication. " 



The anther-cells, which contain the pollen of this 

 tribe, present inequalities and curves of a remarkable 

 appearance under the microscope. 



The only plant among our English wild flowers 

 that belongs to the Gourd tribe is Bryony {Biyoriia 

 dioica), which may be seen climbing over our 

 hedges and thickets in the summer, with its whitish 

 flowers with green veins, and red berries in the 

 autumn. This plant abounds with a fetid and acrid 

 juice. Hampden G. Glasspoole. 



OUR COMMON BRITISH FOSSILS, AND 



WPIERE TO FIND THEM. 



No. IIL 



By J. E. Taylor, F.L.S., F.G.S., &c. 



TO a young and enthusiastic geologist, perhaps 

 there is no class of fossils to which so 

 much interest is attached as the THlobites. They 

 are extremely elegant objects, and are easily 

 identified. Their strict limit to the primary rocks 

 makes them geologically valuable as means of iden- 



tifying strata. Even non-geologists remember their 

 glib, half-scientific, half-popular family name, and 

 will occasionally air it as if it were the complete key 

 to paleontology. A good collection of well-arranged 

 trilobites looks better in the cabinet than perhaps 

 any other fossils. There is such a variation from the 

 leading type that one cannot wonder the number of 

 genera should be so great. No two are externally 

 alike, and the deviation is sometimes so extreme that 

 the Trilobites are no longer trilobed. 



Trilobites are among the few fossils which possess 

 the associations of folk-lore. Ammonites and encri- 

 nite stems, Gryphea and Cycadites, share with them 

 the feeble notice which the curious gave to them in 

 pre-geological days. At that time all fossils were 

 called "petrifactions," and all were equally regarded 

 as evidence of the universality of the Noachian 

 Deluge. Perhaps nowhere are Trilobites more abun- 

 dantly visible than in the Wenlock limestones, near 

 Dudley. The latter have been upheaved to a very 

 high angle, and the surfaces of the hard limestone 

 slabs are so thickly bestrewn with fossils, that it is 

 impossible to place the tip of one's finger without its 

 coming into contact with some of them. These 

 limestones are not even moss-clad, but are constantly 

 clean, from weathering. The fossils are slightly 

 harder in mineral substance, and therefore stand out 

 in relief. They are veritably museums of Upper 

 Silurian fossils, and although hard to extract with the 

 hammer, the student may while away many a sum- 

 mer hour in gloating over these lovely treasures of 

 the ancient deep. Trilobites are there in uncountable 

 thousands, but nearly always in disjointed "heads" 

 and "tails." We cannot wonder, therefore, that 

 they should have attracted the attention of those fond 

 of natural phenomena, although in the days long 

 anterior to scientific explanations of them. As 

 "Dudley Locusts," one genus of Trilobites (Calymene) 

 was long known ; even the fact of their standing out 

 in relief from the limestone was noticed as very 

 remarkable, for nothing was known in those days 

 of sub-aerial denudation or weathering of rocks. 

 They were named " Trilobites " as long ago as 1 771, 

 by Walch, in his "Natural Histoiy of Petrifactions," 

 on account of the three lobes of joints which usually 

 run along the body. Still their crustacean origin had 

 been guessed at by bold speculators, and even Lin- 

 neus classed them among the Entomostraca. 



How utterly at sea the majority of naturalists were 

 as to the true nature of these singular fossils is indi- 

 cated by some of their generic names. Agnostus, 

 Asaphtis, Calyinette, &c., the commonest of these, 

 are only Greek words signifying "unknown," or 

 " concealed," &c. Still, since the time of Brongniart 

 they have been imiversally regarded as crustaceans, 

 and the universal opinion is that they are allied to the 

 Isopoda, only that they were legless. Mr. Henry 

 Woodward, F. R. S. , who has taken up Mr. Salter's 

 investigations among the Trilobites with great en- 



