BARDWJCKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



261 



sunflower. Of course the function of the bristles on 

 the floral organs is to prevent insects from creeping 

 into the head from below, and thus, by getting 

 between the achenes, to get at the nectar cups by an 

 illicit process. — y Ifamseu, Bedford'. 



GEOLOGY. 



Recent Progress in Geology.— From an 

 abstract in " Science " of the address delivered at the 

 recent meeting of the American Association by 

 Professor Edward Orton, it appears " the oldest living 

 type of vertebrates " is to be found in a shark recently 

 described by Mr. Samuel Garman. This fish proves 

 to be a cladodont, and is closely allied to the genus 

 Cladodus of carboniferous time, a genus hitherto 

 supposed to be long ago extinct. Professor Claypole 

 discovered spines and scales of fish in the iron sand- 

 stone of the middle Clinton group of central Pennsyl- 

 vania, and his Onchus clintoni must at present, says 

 Professor Orton, enjoy the distinction of being the 

 earliest known representative of vertebrate life on the 

 globe, while the first of the inhabitants of the dry 

 land is the cockroach {Blatla) , of which the fragment 

 of a wing was found in middle silurian strata in 

 central France. 



Proceedings of the Liverpool Geological 

 Society. — After the annual address by the President, 

 Mr. T. Mellard Reade, which has already been 

 noticed in this volume (p. 213) comes a paper by Dr. 

 Herdman on the Conservative Action of Animals in 

 Relation to Dynamical Geology. The author draws 

 attention to the protection afforded by certain animals 

 to the rocks of the sea-shore ; and instances the 

 common acorn shell, sponges, ascidians and polyzoa, 

 and a species of annelid (Sabellaria), all of which 

 may in some way form, by their manner of growth, a 

 covering to the rock, thus hindering its denudation. 

 He concludes with a list of the different groups of 

 animals which he believes to have similar effects. 

 The other papers published in the same number are 

 on the Microscopic Character of the Triassic Sand- 

 stones of the country around Liverpool, by G. H. 

 Morton ; on a Quarry at Poulton, by H. C. Beasley ; 

 The Mersey Tunnel, its Geological Aspects and 

 Results, and two other local papers, by the President. 



Fossil Slugs. — In a letter to " The Geological 

 Magazine," Mr. J. Starkie Gardiner says Testacella 

 is recorded from the Middle and Upper Miocene and 

 Pliocene, Limax from the Lower Miocene and up- 

 wards, Amalia from Upper Miocene, Parmacellina 

 from Upper Eocene, and Arion ater from Pleistocene. 

 Vitrina, Succinea, and Hyalinia, scarcely "slugs" — 

 a rather vague term — are found fossil in the Tertiaries. 

 " Probably many other slugs are known as fossils in 

 America, but it is of course only genera provided 

 with some sort of shell that can possibly leave behind 

 any fossil remains." 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Trees Struck by Lightning. — In the storm 

 of August 13th, which was felt severely in the 

 neighbourhood of Richmond, Surrey, an oak-tree 

 was struck by the lightning near to the White 

 House, the residence of the Duke of Teck, which 

 presented a terrible illustration of one of the forces 

 of Nature. The tree was a fine old specimen, 

 forming one of a noble family, which must have 

 counted very many years in its leafy life, and was 

 full of vigour and vitality when the electric fluid 

 struck it ; a fellow tree, standing only a few yards 

 off, would appear to have received the first blow, 

 which, falling on to the topmost branch, split its 

 trunk from the top to the bottom, peeling off the 

 bark, and making a clean cut right down to the 

 earth ; thence it would appear as if it bounded on 

 to the neighbouring oak which it shivered into 

 fragments, beginning apparently at the base, as one 

 states who was driving past, that he observed some 

 of the branches tossed upwards into the air, and this 

 statement is supported by the fact, that the writer 

 noticed portions of disintegrated boughs hanging on, 

 and upon other trees at some distance from the one 

 upon which the heaviest blow fell. So powerful was 

 the force employed that the fated tree, which stood 

 about ninety-five yards from the duke's garden, had 

 some of its parts scattered in it, while the ground, for 

 many yards around the base of the tree, was covered 

 with the ruins ; and the tree, completely stripped of 

 its bark, was, in the most extraordinary manner, 

 reduced to ribands, the solid wood being resolved 

 into fibre, as easy of division as the strands which 

 compose a rope's end. So perfectly was the bark 

 removed from the main trunk, that it was perfectly 

 free from all splinters, and as smooth as though it 

 had been removed by careful hands, while the upper 

 portion which remained stood pointing towards the 

 sky with whitened and significant fingers in the 

 direction of the expended force. A number of 

 persons visited the ruins, many of whom took away 

 specimens of the disintegrated fibre as affording a 

 very remarkable illustration of the force of the 

 electric fluid. — y. Crowther. 



Nesting of Mountain Linnet.— It may be 

 worth recording in your journal the fact, that a pair of 

 mountain linnets have this summer nested on Black- 

 stairs, a well-known mountain in this vicinity, and 

 successfully reared a brood of young birds, now about 

 ready to fly. No nest of the species has, I believe, 

 been heretofore discovered in the south of Ireland, 

 and certainly its breeding in these latitudes is a very 

 unusual event. The nest is built in a low clump of 

 heather and stunted furze, on the edge of a pretty 

 grassy ravine through which a stream trickles, and is 

 composed chiefly of dry bents, with a lining of the 

 wool of mountain sheep. The fearless demeanour of 

 the parent birds is exceedingly interesting. On the 

 8th of August, my brother and I first disturbed the 

 male bird from the banks of the stream near which 

 his nest is situated. Instead of flying to any distance, 

 he sought refuge and concealment a few yards away 

 by lighting against the bare perpendicular bank of 

 the ravine, which, being of a damp gravelly compo- 

 sition, harmonised so exactly with the dark brown 

 hue of the bird's plumage, that, even after seeing 

 him light upon it, we had no little difficulty in 

 distinguishing his figure from the sombre background. 

 We several times dislodged him from this situation, 

 but he invariably took up a similar one a little farther 

 down, and would peck contentedly at the gravel 



