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HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



and suggested the provisional name of parimla, to 

 distinguish it in the meantime from the common form. 

 Dried specimens differ in the following particulars : — 

 L. Githago : stem branched 2 ' to 3 feet high ; calyx 

 segments nearly twice the length of the petals ; flowers 

 purple, whitish within the throat. L. Githago var. 

 parvula : stem simple, 3 to 5 inches high, calyx 

 segments equalling or shorter than the petals, flowers 

 bright red. The difference in the colour of the 

 flowery may have occurred in drying. The locality 

 given for the plant is "near the Grand Stand, Epsom 

 Downs, Surrey," and it might be worth while for 

 some of our southern botanists to try and procure its 

 seeds during the ensuing summer, see if it retains its 

 characteristics when cultivated, and give the result of 

 their experiments in the pages of Science-Gossip. 

 — D. Douglass. 



Teratological Notes. — From observations made 

 in my own garden, I am far from thinking synanthy 

 commonly the accompaniment of decaying vital energy 

 in the plants on which it occurs. Last spring I had 

 a polyanthus which, after bearing a profusion of 

 bloom, produced a flower with two pistils, each of 

 them having a distinct style and stigma. This plant 

 is now alive and vigorous in full bloom, many of its 

 flowers being on long pedicels, growing singly like 

 those of the primrose, others being in umbels on erect 

 peduncles, as is usual in the polyanthus; and with 

 nothing at present like that exceptional flower of last 

 year. I have, however, now in bloom, several 

 healthy, vigorous plants of polyanthus bearing synan- 

 thic flowers of which all the organs are double the 

 number found in nominal flowers : from the calyx 

 with ten teeth to the two long styles with well- 

 developed stigmas, of which I enclose a specimen. 

 All these flowers are pin-eyed, and most of them such 

 as a florist would destroy. Indeed, I think that if 

 botanists would pick up what gardeners throw away, 

 and cultivate worthless varieties of popular flowers, 

 they might know much more of teratology than 

 many of them do. — John Gibbs. 



A Shower of Pollen. — A remarkable shower of 

 pollen grains fell in the north-eastern part of Pennsyl- 

 vania on the morning of March 17, which covered an 

 area of more than 2500 square miles. It is believed 

 to be chiefly the pollen of Pinus Australis of the 

 Southern States, and that it had been carried by the 

 wind a distance of 500 miles. The country people 

 took it for a " shower of sulphur." 



Yew-trees and Cattle. — With reference to this 

 matter I beg to state that two stirks, the property of 

 the Rev. D. Bonallo, Blackford, were found dead in 

 the byre one day last week (end of April). It was dis- 

 covered that they had devoured some cuttings of yew, 

 which had been carelessly thrown out of the shrubbery 

 into the meadow in which the cattle were grazing. — 

 R. Donaldson, G!as?oiu. 



GEOLOGY. 



The Silurian District of Rhymney and Pen- 

 y-lan, Cardiff. — This is the subject of a paper 

 recently read before the Geological Society, by W. J. 

 Sollas, F.G.S. 



The paper commences with a history of the previous 

 observations on the district ; a description of the 

 geographical distribution, geological structure, and 

 vertical succession of the Silurian rocks is next given. 

 They comprise beds belonging to the Wenlock and 

 Ludlow groups, and pass conformably upwards into 

 the Old Red Sandstone. The district affords a good 

 base for a measurement of the thickness of the Old Red 

 Sandstone on the south of the South-Wales coalfield. 

 This was found to be a little over 4000 feet. The 

 thinning out of the Old Red Sandstone and Silurian 

 strata, together with the marked change which takes 

 place correspondingly in the lithological characters 

 of the latter formation on passing from the north to 

 the south side of the coalfield, were taken to indicate 

 an approach to a shore-line. The shore-line belonged 

 to land which, as shown by the great thickness of the 

 Devonian beds, could not have extended far south. 

 It corresponded to Mr. Etheridge's barrier between 

 the Old Red Sandstone and Devonian seas. The 

 sandstones with Old- Red characters, such as the 

 Hangman Grit and the Pickwell-Down Sandstones, 

 occurring in the Devonian formation, were deposited 

 at intervals when this barrier was submerged to a. 

 greater depth than usual. The Cornstones were 

 stated to thin out to the south along with the other 

 sedimentary beds of the Old Red Sandstone, and 

 were regarded as derived from the denudation of 

 previously upheaved limestones, such as the Bala and 

 Hirnant. 



An Indian Miocene Ape. — The skull of an 

 anthropoid ape, an adult female, which must have 

 been as large as a female gorilla or orang, has been 

 found in the Siwalik rocks of the Punjab by Mr. 

 Theobald, of the Indian Geological Survey. It is 

 the first of its kind found in India which bears a 

 resemblance to existing apes ; and this animal must 

 have been as distinct as the gorilla and the chim- 

 panzee, or any other two types of ape. It is proposed 

 to call it Paliropithccus. 



Post-glacial Animals in London. — Fossil re- 

 mains of various extinct animals have been recently 

 found in London, in making the excavations for Messrs. 

 Drummond's new bank at Charing Cross. They 

 include elephant tusks and molars, probably the mam- 

 moth Elephas primigenms, teeth and numerous bones 

 of the gigantic extinct ox (Bos primigenius), a portion 

 of what appears to be the horn of the great extinct Irish 

 deer (Megaceros Hibemicns), along with various other 

 remains of ruminating animals not yet identified. All 

 the remains are those of herbivorous quadrupeds, but 



