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HA RD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE - G SSI P. 



kinds (although the bright yellow-wort hardly needs to 

 associate with the Bee-orchis on that account), just as 

 you see little confectioners' booths springing up by 

 the side of some itinerant circus, in order to profit by 

 the greater attraction of the noisy exhibition. Again, 

 I conceive it possible that other flowers may be 

 advantaged in quite a different way, by growing in 

 company with plants possessing some poisonous 

 stinging/ or other defensive property. Thus, it is 

 noticeable how certain kinds of umbelliferous flowers 

 are always found growing in the midst of dense patches 

 of nettles, or amid the thorny brambles and hedge- 

 rows. Have any of our botanical readers noticed 

 anything approaching such a " commensalism " as 

 is here suggested ? — J. E. Taylor. 



GEOLOGY. 



Further Discoveries in the Cresswell 

 Caves. — Professor Boyd Dawkins and the Rev. J. 

 M. Mello, F.G.S., have communicated to the 

 Geological Society an account of digging-operations 

 carried on in one of the smaller caves of the Cresswell 

 Crags, known as Mother Grundy's Parlour. They 

 described the occurrence in the red clay and ferruginous 

 sand of this cave of bones of hippopotamus and the 

 Leptorhine Rhinoceros, proving the existence of 

 these animals in the wooded valleys of the basin of 

 the Upper Trent at the time of the accumulation of 

 those deposits ; while at the same time, so far as the 

 evidence goes, there was an absence of Palaeolithic 

 man, of the reindeer, and of horses, while hyaenas 

 were abundant. In a subsequent period, represented 

 in all the caves by the red sand, the mammoth, woolly 

 rhinoceros, the horse, and reindeer inhabited the 

 vicinity, and were subject to the attacks both of 

 hyaenas and of human hunters, whose quartzite im- 

 plements prove them to belong to the same people 

 whose traces are found in the river-deposits. In the 

 breccia and upper cave-earth of the larger caves the 

 existence of the Palaeolithic hunter is evidenced by 

 flint implements, resembling those of Solutre, accom- 

 panied by implements of bone and antler. Associated 

 with these was the incised figure of a horse described 

 in a former paper. The authors finally dwelt briefly 

 upon the characteristics of the caves in prehistoric 

 and historic times, and indicated some of the anthro- 

 pological points of interest connected therewith. 



Dr. Gwyn Jeffreys has communicated to the 

 Zoological Society the second part of his work on the 

 Mollusca of the Lightning and Porcupine expeditions, 

 embracing the families from Anomiidse to Arcidae. The 

 number of species noticed was ioo, of which 4 were 

 new to science, and 15 were hitherto unfigured. Par- 

 ticulars were given of the geographical and geological 

 distribution of all the species, and their synonymy 

 was discussed. Some species of Leda and Malletia 

 were Sicilian fossils of the Pliocene formation, and had 



not been previously known as recent or living. These 

 species occurred at great depths, a fact which showed 

 that the sea-bed in that part of the Mediterranean had 

 been considerably raised since the Tertiary epoch. 



Faults in the London Clay.— Dr. J. E. Taylor 

 has forwarded to the "Geological Magazine" an 

 account of nine faults or dislocations seen in the 

 newly-made sections of the London clay near Harwich, 

 which have been laid bare by the excavations for the 

 construction of the new docks. These "faults" are 

 as plainly visible as in a geological diagram, and the 

 most important of them indicated a vertical disloca- 

 tion of more than twelve feet. With one exception, 

 the faults dipped at an angle of about fifty degrees. 



A Mammaliferous Deposit at Barrington, 

 near Cambridge. — The Rev. O. Fisher, F.G.S., 

 has just communicated a note to the Geological 

 Society on this subject. The gravel in which the 

 remains were found is about twenty feet above the 

 alluvial flat by the river Rhee, and is evidently post- 

 glacial. The gravel contains some of the ordinary 

 land and fresh-water shells, but not Cyrena or Unio. 

 Remains of the following mammalia have been found : 

 Ursns speleus, Mcles taxits, Hyana spelcea, Felts 

 spchva, Cervus megaceros, elaphus, and another, Bos 

 primigenius, Bison priscus, Hippopotamus major, 

 Rhinoceros leptorhinus, Elephas antiqutts and primi- 

 genius, with a worked flint, almost certainly from the 

 same deposit. Mr. Fisher considers the abundance 

 and admixture of these remains due to the locality 

 having been a sort of eddy or pool in the old river. 



Viviparous Ichthyosauria. — At the last meet- 

 ing of the Geological Society, a paper on the evidence 

 that certain species of Ichthyosaurus were viviparous 

 was read by Professor Seeley. The author described 

 certain specimens of Ichthyosaurs in which the remains 

 of one or more small individuals have been preserved 

 within the body-cavity of larger ones. One was 

 noticed in 1846 by Dr. Chaning-Pearce, who sug- 

 gested that it furnished evidence in favour of the 

 viviparity of the Ichthyosaurs. Other examples are 

 preserved in museums in Germany, and one in Madrid, 

 and most of them have been examined by the author, 

 who adduces the state of preservation of the small 

 individuals, in contrast with that of the traces of fish 

 and Cephalopoda, the remains of food, which are 

 found in the stomachal region of the larger individuals, 

 in advance of the position occupied by the smaller 

 ones, as a proof that we have not here to do with a 

 case of cannibalism. The position of the smaller 

 skeletons, with the head generally turned towards the 

 pelvic region of the larger ones, is also regarded as 

 indicative of their standing in the relation of parent 

 and offspring. As some of the young specimens 

 possess limbs, it would seem that the supposition that 

 Ichthyosaurus passed through a sort of tadpole stage 

 is erroneous. 



