HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



6 9 



■weather cold and foggy. Only a few of the blos- 

 soms were perfect, the sepals and petals being often 

 wanting. On January 21st, I observed that the 

 •filberts (in the weald of Kent) showed many female 

 blossoms, the male flowers being only partially 

 expanded. — M. E. Pope, Edgbaston. 



Fungus in Oranges. — Would some reader 

 kindly inform me the name of a fungus which grows 

 in an orange ? I found one growing on a pippin ; it 

 "had grown up to the rind, which was slightly black- 

 ened. I have cut it out, and dried it. I never met 

 -with one like it before ; curiously enough the fruit 

 was not injured in the least, it grew up like a black 

 tulip, not mixing with the fruit. — S. A. B. 



Etymology of Sphagnum. — Could any of your 

 readers enlighten me with regard to the word Sphag- 

 num ? I believe there is no classical authority for it ; 

 and it cannot be imported from the Greek, as the 

 word acpayvov does not exist. Pliny uses the word 

 rrcpayvos. So it appears to me it would be more 

 correct to speak of a sphagnus and the sphagni. — 

 B. Piffard. 



GEOLOGY. 



Lower Palaeozoic Rocks, Cornwall. — Serpen- 

 tines have been divided into Ophite (methylosis igne- 

 ous rocks) ; Ophiolyte (methylosis calcareous rocks), 

 while the latter may be Ophicalcite or Ophidolo- 

 mite, in which respectively part of the calcite, or part 

 of the dolomite, is unchanged. Most of the ophites 

 ihat I am acquainted with are intrusive masses, but 

 as some eruptive rocks are in bedded masses, some 

 ophites after them are also in bedded masses. Tuffs 

 more usually are changed into steatite and allied 

 rocks, but some in part are changed into ophite ; 

 ■such often have a look as if they were intruded into 

 the bed of steatite, but more correctly they are part 

 of the bed. Lately I met in the co. Wexford a 

 peculiar bedded ophite — in part ophite and in part 

 smaragdilyte. Ophiolytes are nearly invariably in 

 bedded masses ; yet, in the eastern portion of the 

 Mweelrea mountains, north of Killary Bay, co. Mayo, 

 there are curious intrusions or protrusions of calcar- 

 eous rock, generally more orlessdolomitic and in part 

 ophiolyte or steatite. All the Cornish rocks, as far 

 as I examined them, were ophitic, usually methy- 

 losis Gabbro or diallage rock, and occurred as 

 intrusions. However, on the coast line between 

 St. Michael's Mount and the Lizard there are tuffs 

 changed in part into steatite and in part into ophite, 

 and these to me appeared to be in bedded masses. 

 Elsewhere I have suggested that the Lower 

 Palaeozoic rocks of the Lizard probably are either 

 Cambro-Silurian (Lower Silurian) or Cambrian, as 

 they and their associated eruptive rocks are very 



similar to the rocks of these formations in Ireland. 

 There is, however, no direct evidence to prove their 

 age, further than that they belong to one of the 

 Lower Palreozoic formations, but to which of these it 

 is hard to say, and my suggestion is just as probably 

 correct as not. The Cornish ophites are metalliferous, 

 as are also the Irish Cambro-Silurian ophites. — 

 G. H. K., Lurgy brack, Letterkenny, co. Donegal. 



Fossil Oolitic Madreporaria.— A paper on 

 this subject has been read before the Geological 

 Society by Robert F. Tomes. The author called at- 

 tention to the fact that there has been sometimes in the 

 study of corals a confusion made between growth by 

 fissiparity and by gemmation. If the former process 

 result from the gradual conjunction of two opposite 

 septa, so as to form a new divisional wall in the 

 calyx, there is no risk of any such confusion ; but if 

 the separation has been by the formation of a constric- 

 tion in the central part of an elongated calyx, this may 

 be, and has been, confused with growth by gemmation. 

 A large number of the forms here described were col- 

 lected near Fairford, Gloucestershire. They occur in a 

 white marly clay, occurring between the Forest Marble 

 and the Cornbrash. A detailed section was given, 

 and the particulars of some other coralliferous beds. 

 These are not all upon the same horizon, though 

 there is a considerable relation between their coral 

 faunas. The author gave a description of twenty 

 genera and thirty-four species. Of these the follow- 

 ing genera are new to the British Oolites : Bathy- 

 ccenia, a new group of the family Astrteidae (Eusmi- 

 linae), containing two species ; Favia, Astroccenia, 

 Enallohelia, and Tricycloseris are for the first time 

 recorded as occurring in the British Oolites ; and 

 Confusastrsea and Oroseris, recorded by the author 

 from the Inferior Oolite, are now added to the coral- 

 fauna of the Great Oolite. In the discussion which 

 followed, the chairman expressed his sense of the 

 value of the paper. He observed that most of these 

 corals were compound, and some of them especially 

 peculiar to reefs ; although compound Madreporaria 

 were found living as deep as 750 fathoms. They, 

 therefore, did not seem to very much elucidate the 

 question of the depth of the Mesozoic sea. Simple 

 or solitary corals certainly did not throw more light 

 upon the question, because they occurred from 

 shallow water to very great depths, even to 3000 

 fathoms. Mr. Brown's collection, mentioned by the 

 author, come not from two horizons, but all from 

 one, at a spot about two miles W. of Cirencester, in a 

 zone about 6-18 inches thick, near the top of the 

 Great Oolite. Professor P. M. Duncan confirmed the 

 statement of Professor Prestwich, about the horizons 

 from which Mr. Brown's collection was made. These 

 corals, described by Mr. Tomes, were from lenticular 

 coral-beds, not from reefs. They could hardly be 

 very deep-sea formations, from the oolite contained 

 in them, which seemed at the present time to be a 



