260 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



Turritis glabra. — I was surprised to find this 

 species mentioned by Mr. Dillon at page 210, among 

 a list of plants "not now considered native in any 

 part of Britain." My brother and I found it growing 

 abundantly in a deep rocky gorge, among the Cheviot 

 Hills, near Hovvnamkirk, in i860, which was a new 

 Scottish station for the species, and where it was very 

 unlikely to have been introduced by man. It may 

 also be noted that neither Babington nor Hooker 

 give the slightest hint in the last editions of their 

 respective Floras, that it is not a native, and Hooker 

 is always very particular on that point. — David 

 Douglas. 



North American Mosses. — Messrs. Eugene 

 A. Ran, and A. B. Hervey, A.M., have issued an 

 excellently arranged " Catalogue of North American 

 Musci," and have thus ably supplied a want which 

 has long been felt by American botanists. The 

 classification is mainly that adopted by Professor 

 Schimper in his " Synopsis of European Mosses." 



Botany of North Devon. — While botanising in 

 North Devon during July, I came across Saxifraga 

 uvibrosa growing wild some way from any cultivated 

 garden. Is not this very uncommon in the south ? 

 Corydalis clavicutata was growing in profusion near 

 the moor, and by the side of a stream one plant 

 of Campanula hederacea I found with pure white 

 flowers. I procured a great number of specimens of 

 Cotyledon umbilicus and Melampyrum pratense. In 

 no specimen of the former did I see a raceme of 

 panicles as figured in Bentham, but merely simple 

 racemes, and in no specimen of the latter were any of 

 the leaves toothed at the base. Which are the 

 commonest characteristics of each ? I received from 

 Jersey a specimen of a fern, whose fronds were 

 exactly similiar in form to the barren fronds of 

 Blechmtm spicanl. The fronds of this specimen bore 

 fruit on the back and there were none corresponding 

 to the fertile fronds of the hard fern. What is its 

 name? — -What is the signification of the terminal 

 endings of the families in Botany, e.g., -acece, as in 

 Eric-acetv, Campanul-accic, &c, and -inetz as in 

 Scrophtclar-inece, Plumbag-inecc, &c. Bentham has a 

 family called Lentibulacdc. I can find this in no 

 other botanical book. It corresponds to the 

 Lentibulariacetc of Lindley. — Walter G. JVoollcombe, 

 Trinity College, Oxford. 



Borago. — If Borago officinalis is, as stated by 

 S.Dillon, Fore Street, Hertford, " not indigenous," 

 how comes it to be growing among the ruins of Corfe 

 Castle in this county ? I have seen it there for the last 

 forty years ; and in the parish of Swanage, it is abun- 

 dant, though I admit, in somewhat suspicious places. 

 Hooker and Arnott do not hint at any doubt of Borago 

 being a native plant. — Julia Colson. 



GEOLOGY. 



A Paleolithic Implement Manufactory. — 

 Mr. F. C. Spurrell has discovered, in the brick-earth 

 of Crayford, in Kent, at a depth of forty feet from 

 the present surface, a large number of flint-flakes 

 associated with the cores from which they had been 

 struck off. Mixed with them were flint implements 

 of the Palaeolithic type. The site is believed to be 

 that of an original manufactory of palaeolithic flint 

 weapons. 



Geology of Swansea. — In answer to H. P. M., 

 in your October number, p. 238, I may mention that 

 the seam of coal " worked in the Millstone Grit " is 

 included in the series of strata grouped as Millstone 

 Grit, and that these strata pass insensibly up into the 

 coal-measures. The lowest seam of coal, as will be 

 apparent from the section published in my paper 

 (p. 172), occurs sometimes many feet beneath the 

 sea-level, at others high up above it. The underclays 

 are most uncertain in thickness, averaging about three 

 feet. H. P. M. will find precise information on these 

 matters in the sections published by the Geological 

 Survey, and mentioned by me in a footnote at the 

 bottom of p. 173. These sections may be consulted 

 at the Geological Survey Office in Jermyn Street. 

 Not having them with me I cannot give particulars. 

 The anticlinal structure exhibited at Newton (see 

 diagram before-mentioned) is a clear case of the 

 "upheaval" of the rocks, for all the strata repre- 

 sented were originally laid down in approximately 

 horizontal layers, and the Carboniferous Limestone 

 was deposited at some depth beneath the' sea. In 

 reply to his last inquiry, I would refer H. P. M. to a 

 paper by Mr. E. T. Hardman, "On the Origin of 

 Anthracite," published in the Journal of the Royal 

 Geol. Soc. of Ireland, ser. 2, vol. iv. p. 200. — //. B. 

 Woodward, Fakenham. 



Geology of Swansea. — I send you the follow- 

 ing list of Fossils of the Carboniferous Limestone, in 

 the vicinity of Swansea, as a note to the valuable 

 paper communicated in the two last numbers by 

 Mr. H. B. Woodward, F.G.S. With the exception 

 of a few species in the Swansea Museum and in the 

 collection of Mr. Wm. Terrill, I collected the whole 

 during the recent meeting of the British Association, 

 and although a very incomplete list, it may be of 

 sufficient interest to appear in your pages. Clisio- 

 phyllum tnrbinatnm, Cyathophylhtm Stutchburyi, 

 Lithostrotion irregulare, Syringopora reticulata, 

 Phillipsia truncatula, Fenestella plebeia, Athyris 

 ambigua, Cliouetes Hardrensis, Orthis resupinata, 

 Produclus cora, P. giganteus, P. longispinus, P. 

 Martini, P. punctatus, P. semireticulatus, R/iyu- 

 chonella acuminata, R. pleurodon, Spirifera attenuata, 

 S. bisulcata, S. glabra, S. lineata, Terebratula hastata, 



