HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



163 



and in these particular sections the spore cases of 

 ferns are frequently found with the annulus as 

 perfect as when living and the spores in situ. Again 

 we find other sections surrounded with masses of 

 detached spores of ferns, Calamites, Lepidostrobus, 

 as well as large quantities of macrospores from the 

 last named fruit. Intermixed with the above wreck 

 of vegetable matter we have many very peculiar forms, 

 some of which have been described by Professor 

 Williamson under the generic name of Sporocarpum. 

 Other forms however still remain a puzzle, and before 

 we can understand these very minute forms "which 

 require a good \ inch objective to view them 

 distinctly " we shall be compelled to study plants in 

 decay, especially the aquatic species. I was forcibly 

 struck with this fact while on a recent visit to 

 Liverpool. Mr. Chantrell, with whom I stayed, has 

 been engaged in this study " which he pleases to call 

 the borderland of animal and vegetable life" for ten 

 or twelve years, and he showed me an extensive collec- 

 tion of drawings illustrating the changes he has 

 observed while engaged in watching this decay of 

 vegetable matter. He also put me preparations 

 under the microscope of the same forms arrested in 

 decay and mounted permanently for examination. I 

 have no doubt that many of the forms Mr. Chantrell 

 showed me are the winter states of different plants ; 

 see, for instance, the winter state of Volvox, as illus- 

 trated in works on Algae, &c. I have no doubt that 

 many of the strange fossil forms that we find were 

 the winter states of some of the aquatic vegetable 

 forms of the coal period, while further development 

 was arrested by fossilisation. — JoJui Butterworth. 



Railway Cutting through Peat-Moss. — A 

 railway cutting through the moss near Ashton-under- 

 Lyne, has recently opened out an interesting section 

 not only to geologists but also to botanists. The 

 greatest thickness of the turf is shown to be about 

 eleven feet. In the lowest stratum of about five feet 

 numerous branches of birch-trees are found, the bark 

 is well preserved, but the wood is quite rotten. The 

 turf immediately above and around the branches is 

 mainly composed of a black fibrous material, evidently 

 of woody origin. In spots near the surface are 

 accumulations of a much paler material, which on 

 close examination prove to be the remains of the well- 

 known bog-moss Sphagnum. On washing a small 

 portion, the minute floating leaves — in the opinion of 

 our local bryologist Mr. Whitehead — give evidence 

 of the species Cymbifolium. Under a medium power 

 the cell structure is found to retain all its wonderful 

 perfection, the pores and spirals being distinct and 

 clear, and with a power of 700 diameters the cell 

 walls present a well-marked fimbriated appearance, 

 affording, as far as cell structure is concerned, one 

 of the most beautiful objects for the microscope. It 

 would appear from the evidence of the section that 

 our turf-mosses are not of very ancient origin, which 



view is supported by the prevalence of birch-trees 

 now growing on Chat Moss, and other mosses near 

 Manchester. — J. E. Sunderland. 



Fossil Trees in the Coal Measure. — On 

 Tuesday evening, May 4, the members of the 

 Oldham Microscopical Society were conducted by 

 Mr. Nield to the brickworks, near Oldham Edge, 

 for the purpose of viewing the now famous "fossil 

 trees." Hammers were industriously plied in extri- 

 cating the various fossils, stigmarian roots, Halonia, 

 Ulodendron, Calamites, Sigillaria, lepidodendroid 

 twigs and fruits, Lepidostrobi, fern fronds, and other 

 leaves, believed to be new, or at the least unascer- 

 tained relationships. A number of stumps of fossil 

 trees, leafless and branchless, are to be seen. There 

 is the trunk invested with a thin layer of coal, the 

 remains of its bark, and there are its roots stretching 

 and ramifying far and wide. Many of them are un- 

 mistakably Sigillaria (gigantic lycopods — club mosses), 

 for here are the characteristic longitudinal flutings, in 

 long parallel rows, and the roots are truly stigmarian, 

 full of punctures, and from which bristle their 

 thousands of rootlets. All are now but casts of once 

 living members of an extensive "carboniferous 

 forest." During the last two years some scores of 

 these trees have been unearthed. They are of various 

 dimensions, measuring in height from 3 to 10 feet, 

 and from 6 inches to 2 feet 4 inches at six feet from 

 the base. During the evening Mr. Nield addressed 

 the members on the subject of " The Fossil Trees." 



Tusks of the Fossil Walrus. — At a recent 

 meeting of the Linnean Society of London, Professor 

 E. Ray Lankester read a paper " On the Tusks of the 

 Fossil Walrus found in the Red Crag of Suffolk," in 

 which he withdraws the generic name of Trichecodon 

 instituted by him in 1865, and referred a series of 

 later discovered large tusks in the Ipswich Museum 

 (including the former specimens) to the living genus 

 Trichechus ; but he specially distinguishes them as 

 T. Huxleyi. Professor Lankester is inclined to 

 think there is very insufficient ground for the 

 generic subdivisions Alachtherium and Trichecodon 

 as used by Professor Van Beneden, and that there is 

 no evidence for the association of the Suffolk and 

 Antwerp tusks. 



Guide to the Geology of London.— We are 

 glad to see that this ably-compiled handbook, by W. 

 Whitaker, B.A., F.G.S. (entitled " A Guide to the 

 Geology of London and the Neighbourhood," but 

 which is in reality an explanation of the geological 

 survey map of "London and its Environs," and of 

 the geological model of London in the Museum of 

 Practical Geology), has reached its third edition. 



Eruptive, etc., Rocks.— I should be greatly 

 obliged to any petrologist who will send to my 

 address his experience in regard to the rocks called 

 "Gneissen," by Cotta or "Quartz rock" by Jukes 



