H4 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



2. E. anglicum : Stamiuibus corolla longioribus. 

 English Viper's Bugloss. 



3. E. italicum : Corollis subcequalibus vix calycem 

 excedentibus, margine villosis. Wall Viper's Bugloss. 



The habitat of No. 1 is in fields frequent ; No. 2, 

 pasture fields and waysides frequent ; No. 3, Jersey. 

 We think it a pity this species should be lost sight 

 of, not that we believe the character, depending alone 

 upon the length of the stamens, is very valuable as a 

 specific distinction. But the Homer examples have 

 a widely different habit. Stem procumbent at the 

 base, the leaves are linear, and with a soft pubescence, 

 and the petals are not more than half the size of 

 No. 1. Stamens always exserted. 



Note. — This species (English Viper's Bugloss) 

 occurs frequently, both in Staffordshire and Shrop- 

 shire. In the above year we could easily detect it 

 from E. vulgar e ; when riding along the highways 

 we could with ease tell the difference. Would our 

 readers give it their attention, during the coming 

 season, and let us know the result? for it is not 

 pleasant for a species bearing such an honoured name, 

 to be overlooked. 



Salicornia. — Hudson, again following his earnest 

 predecessor Ray, makes out five distinct forms from 

 S. herbacea; probably they are merely varieties of a 

 lax type ; however, we mention them to invite the 

 study of our enthusiastic amateurs. It requires a 

 little courage to face mud flats on the banks of our 

 tidal rivers — this may partly account for our limited 

 knowledge of these plants. We shall again shortly 

 refer to, and describe the forms in our herbarium. 



University College, London': Ladies' Botany 

 Class. — The Rev. George Henslow, M.A., F.L.S., 

 &c, lecturer on botany to St. Bartholomew's Hospital, 

 is about to deliver a course of twenty lectures on 

 botany to ladies. We are glad the authorities have 

 been so public-spirited as to throw their classes open 

 to women as well as men. 



GEOLOGY. 



Carboniferous Fenestellid^e. — On Feb. 26, 

 Mr. G. W. Shrubsole read before the Geological 

 Society an important paper, entitled "A Review 

 of the British Carboniferous Fenestellidae," and all 

 who have made any attempt to determine species of 

 Fenestella must have felt how much a revision was 

 required, and in what an unsatisfactory state our 

 knowledge of the Fenestellse has been. That Mr. 

 Shrubsole should reduce the number of species very 

 materially was only what those acquainted with the 

 subject would expect, and who would not be much sur- 

 prised at his reducing the nineteen so-called species 

 which have come under his notice to five. 



Mr. Shrubsole has had splendid material to work 



at from Halkin mountain in Flintshire, and in this 

 locality he has seen a specimen of Fenestella plebeia 

 having a circumference of two feet, and this shows that 

 the variations of different parts of the colony are very 

 great, so that ' ' the young, the mature, and aged con- 

 dition of the same Polyzoan have been described as 

 distinct species ; a similar honour being sometimes 

 conferred upon the base and the upper growth." In 

 the paper it is maintained that the true type is Ac- 

 tinosoma, which has eight denticles set round the 

 margin of the aperture. This structure however seems 

 only to have been as yet discovered on three species, 

 and we shall look forward to future papers from the 

 same author, to explain how far he would hold this 

 to be the case ; for Polypora and Glauconome must 

 certainly be considered as belonging to the Fenes- 

 tellidae, even if they may not have in part to be united 

 in the genus, and the covers already pointed out by 

 Professor and Mr. Young as covering the aperture of 

 Polypora and the tuberculated margins of Glauconome 

 flexicarinata make it difficult to understand how these 

 cells, at any rate, could have'^had raised peristomes 

 with denticles like Actinosoma. We may add that 

 though there is so much resemblance to the bryozoa, 

 or polyzoa, yet that their connection with more recent 

 forms has never been worked out ; and that although 

 there are some points of affinity with Cheilostomata 

 and some with Cyclostomata, proofs as to their exact 

 position are yet wanting, and we may therefore be 

 allowed to point out to Mr. Shrubsole, that if he can 

 bring forward any points of shell structure, to eluci- 

 date the question, he will be adding much to the great 

 importance of this first communication. 



The Rainfall of the World. — This is the 

 title of a pamphlet by Mr. E. D. Archibald, in which 

 an ingenious attempt is made to simplify the general 

 question of a connection between sun-spots and rain- 

 fall j and in it our readers will find a full statement of 

 the supposed relation between famines and sun-spots. 



The Geologists' Association. — We have re- 

 ceived Nos. 7 and 8 of the Proceedings of this vigorous 

 society, in which Mr. W. H. Hudleston continues his 

 invaluable papers on the Yorkshire oolites. 



The Post-Tertiary Deposits of Cambridge- 

 shire. — This was the subject of the Sedgwick Prize 

 Essay for 1876, and was awarded to Mr. A. J. Jukes 

 Browne, B.A., F.G.S. It is now published by Deigh- 

 ton, Bell, & Co., of Cambridge, at half-a-crown. As 

 might be expected from Mr. Jukes Browne's known 

 repute as a writer and geologist, it is a most ably- 

 written and attractive essay on the subject, present- 

 ing us with an account of the physical features of the 

 county, and a description of the glacial deposits, 

 the hill-gravels, the valley-gravels of the early river 

 system and of the present river system ; and also a 

 general correlation of the drift beds of Cambridge- 

 shire with those of East Anglia. 



