HA RD WICKE 'S S CIENCE ■ G SSIF. 



211 



Eiionyimts Japonka, also, which flowered at Brighton 

 for the first time about three years ago upon only one 

 or two plants, has this year flowered abundantly. 

 Has any peculiarity in the weather, this season, occa- 

 sioned this unusual inflorescence, or can the readers 

 of Science-Gossip suggest the cause of it? — 

 T. B. W., Brighton. 



Drying Brittle Plants. — The experience of 

 Mr. D. Douglas, in his attempts to preserve Chara 

 and similar fragile plants, is by no means uncommon. 

 Last season I received a parcel of plants which had 

 been some time dried, and, after passing through the 

 postman's hands, they were reduced to a confused 

 mass of fragments. I was induced by the difficulty 

 of making even characteristic specimens of the Cras- 

 sula family (to say nothing of beauty) to try a method 

 which has, to say the least of it, the merit of keeping 

 the parts of a plant together. . After one of these 

 troublesome subjects has been in the press long 

 enough to flatten it (a day or two suffices), gum one 

 side of the specimen carefully and lay upon it a sheet 

 of mounting-paper of the required size. It can then 

 be passed through the press, and dried in the usual 

 way between blotting-paper. The plant is by this 

 means secured to the paper during the process of 

 diying. I have secured very good specimens of 

 Sediim dasyphylhun, with all the leaves attached, 

 a thing, I fancy, next to impossible if the plants are 

 dried in the ordinary way. A friend suggests air 

 improvement on this plan for delicate filamentous 

 plants like the Charas. Lay the plant on paper tha 

 has been well gummed over, and while the gum is 

 wet ; then upon this place a sheet of dry paper, care- 

 fully turn upside down, and after drawing off the 

 gummed sheet, replace it with a clean sheet of 

 mounting-paper ; turn over again and remove sheet 

 No. 2 ; the plant is thus secured, and does not col- 

 lapse or tangle. — W. E. Green. 



A New London Flora. — This is the title of a 

 capital hand-book of the flora of the metropolis and 

 the neighbourhood, by Dr. Eyre de Ci'espigny, pub- 

 lished by Hardwicke & Bogue, 192, Piccadilly. 

 To practical botanists it is invaluable, as it serves all 

 the purposes of a field guide. We have many capital 

 collecting-grounds not far from London, in spite of 

 the sure manner with which the capital is swelling 

 its boundaries. Dr. Crespigny gives not only lists 

 of flowering plants and their localities, but treats of 

 ferns, mosses, and other cryptogamic plants. A list 

 of seventy-five places is given, each place described 

 as to its scenery, physical character, &c. ; and then 

 follows the lists of plants to be met with. It is with 

 much pleasure we heartily commend this book. 



GEOLOGY. 



The Microscopic Character of Rocks. — 

 Professor Zirkel, in a recent review of the various 

 kinds of crystalline rocks and their microscopic dis- 



tinctions, says he generally uses the term ground mass 

 for rock which is distinctly granular under the micro- 

 scope, and base where there is an amorphous paste 

 not ciystallinely granular under the highest magnify- 

 ing power, though containing crystalline minerals. 

 The ciystalline minerals in the base, he thinks, were 

 formed while the base had still a flowing movement, 

 as is shown by the minerals ranging in straight or 

 wavy lines, and by their fractures or abrupt bends 

 and displacements. Hence the positions and forms 

 of the crystals have been partly determined by the 

 flowing ; and hence, also, the rock has not under- 

 gone any metamoi-phic changes since solidification 

 took place. Those rocks whose micro-fluidal struc- 

 ture is particularly distinct are generally proportion- 

 ally rich in broken ciystals, shivered into detached 

 sharply-angular fragments. 



Geological Phenomenon in the Savoy 

 Alps. — A good deal of interest has lately been taken 

 in a phenomenon reported from the Savoy Alps. A 

 mountain in Tarentaise has been crumbling down, 

 and this has been going on for nearly a month. 

 Huge stones, some of them of fifty cubic yards' bulk, 

 have been detached from the summit of the mountain, 

 and been precipitated to the bottom from a height of 

 five thousand feet, leaping a thousand feet at a bound. 

 The air has been filled with the noises of falling 

 stones, and two neighbouring villages have suffered 

 disasters from the constant stony avalanches. The 

 debris which has been thus detached has formed a 

 huge conical mound in the valley nearly two thousand 

 feet in diameter at the bottom, and six hundred feet 

 wide at the top. Extensive pine forests have slipped 

 from the mountain-side, or been shivered to pieces. 

 It is well known to geologists that the Alpine range 

 is one of the newest of mountain systems, and owes 

 its existence to the folding or crumpling up of for- 

 merly horizontal strata. This process has been 

 going on for a long time intermittingly, and it may 

 be that the phenomenon we have referred to is due 

 to a local dislocation of strata produced by forces 

 tending to still further fold up the rocks. 



"The Geological Record for 1875." — We 

 are glad to see the second issue of this most useful 

 volume to geologists. We are not surprised to 

 notice that it is increased in size to more than forty 

 pages over its predecessor. This is caused not only 

 by increase of matter, but also by a most valuable 

 feature ; viz., an index of all species of fossils noticed 

 in the work. The editor, Mr. W. Whitaker, B.A., 

 F.G.S., is most competent to the task, and is 

 assisted in his undertaking by about two dozen 

 of the most notable geological writers of the da)'. 

 Notwithstanding the increase in size, the price of the 

 Recoi-d remains the same. 



Another Specimen of Arch^opteryx. — It 

 is announced that another specimen of the Archceo- 

 pteryx, or fossil feathered animal originally discovered 



