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HARD WICKE ' S S CIE NCE- G SSI P. 



Such boulders are always isolated, and ' sometimes 

 imbedded in the seam, sometimes in its upper 

 surface. They were always waterworn and rounded, 

 and were composed, as far as had been observed, of 

 granite, gneiss or quartzite foreign to the district. 

 After considering the various suggestions that had 

 been made as to the means by which such boulders 

 had found their way into the coal, the author gave 

 the preference to the action of floating ice, both 

 because the presence of fragments from a distance 

 would thus be more readily explained, and because 

 ice-scratched rocks have been found in situ in the 

 Millstone Grit, within three miles of the place whence 

 the boulder mentioned was obtained. 



How Coal was Formed. — At the same meeting 

 of the above Society, Mr. W. G. Gresby read a paper, 

 in which he brought forward evidence in opposition 

 to the view now generally accepted, that coal-seams 

 were formed from vegetation growing on the spot. 

 He showed that during a very extensive experience 

 he had only once or twice detected stems passing 

 into a bed of coal and connected with the Stigmaria- 

 roots in the underclay. If, as was generally stated, 

 the Stigmariae were the roots of the trees that formed 

 the coal, such instances ought to be common. Not 

 only, however, were they very rare, but the abun- 

 dance of the Stigmarije was extremely variable, and 

 these roots, instead of becoming more thickly matted 

 together in the uppermost part of the underclay, as 

 they should be if they were roots of the coal-forests, 

 were generally distributed, as a rule, throughout the 

 clay in a manner that showed them to have been in 

 all probability independent organisms. Stigmarian 

 roots, when found connected with a stem, were more 

 often on the top of the coal-seam than at the bottom. 

 Other reasons assigned for rejecting the hypothesis, 

 that coal-seams were formed of plants that grew upon 

 the spot, were the occasional absence of underclays, 

 the sharp division between the coal-seams themselves, 

 and the beds above and below them ; the distinct 

 lamination of every seam and its division into layers 

 of different mineral character that are persistent over 

 large areas ; the presence of foreign bodies in the 

 underclay, and especially of pebbles and boulders 

 transported from a distance ; the presence of similar 

 foreign bodies, and occasionally of remains of aquatic 

 mollusca, fish, &c, in the coal itself; and the cir- 

 cumstance, that many coal-seams are impregnated 

 with salt, and are associated with beds containing 

 marine fossils. 



The Cuckoo. — Perhaps it may not be generally 

 known to readers of this journal that the note of the 

 above is a minor third ; although the key in all cases 

 is not the same, still to a certainty the third is minor. 

 Several of my musical friends in years gone by have 

 observed the same, — IT. Hall. 



NOTES AND QUERIES. 



Helianthus annuus. — Last year this flower 

 established itself on the ancient arch of Repton 

 School, some twenty-five or thirty feet from the 

 ground. The most eligible theory is that it was 

 dropped there by birds. There is no reason why 

 this flower should not be added to the London 

 catalogue, like many others, as a waif of cultivation. 

 — E. C. 



Cotoneastervulgaris. — Llandudno is, Ibelieve, 

 the only recorded British habitat of this shrub, and 

 which I fear is now exterminated. I should be 

 pleased to know where I can obtain a plant of it. — 

 J. Clift. 



The Tree of Knowledge of Good and Evil. — 

 Last spring when I was sketching a curious old fresco 

 in Chaldon Church, Surrey, I became much struck 

 with the representation of a member of the vegetable 

 kingdom, which, beneath a quaint mannerism in the 

 school of Hogarth, seemed to present some touches of 

 nature, and indeed I possess a popular work dating from 

 the last century with quite as indifferent delineations 

 illustrating it. I will describe it then as a bush, with 

 a straight stalk springingTrom a telescopic pot, such as 

 I would imagine Chaucer has designated, in his 

 Legend of Good Women, a "turning wheel." This 

 stalk dilated at the nodes, where it gave out opposite 

 branches surcharged with leaves and fruit. At the 

 fifth node it bifurcated into two thorny branches 

 resembling antelope's horns, also emitting clusters of 

 leaves and fruits. The leaves were spatulate and 

 acuminated, ; and the fruit partially and laterally 

 covered with a husk. When I add the locality for 

 this bush as being the infernal regions, some might 

 despair of its identification, but I prefer here the 

 motto Nil despcrci7idum. Now we understand from 

 the preface to Sale's Koran that a Latin translation of 

 that work was made near six hundred years ago, 

 being finished in 1143, by Robertus Rentensis, an 

 Englishman, with the assistance of Hermannus 

 Dalmata, at the request of Peter, Abbot of Clugny, 

 who paid them well for their pains ; and in those 

 days when the Saracenic literature had the estimation 

 in Europe actually held by that of Germany, we 

 cannot wonder at its influence being extended to the 

 fine arts. The Mahomedan tree of hell is the Al 

 Lakkum, a tree by no means fabulous, since a note to 

 the above-mentioned work says : "There is a thorny 

 tree so called, which grows in Tehama, and bears 

 fruit like an almond, but extremely bitter ; and there- 

 fore the same name is given to this infernal tree." 

 I should imagine that the scarlet blossomed Judas 

 tree so ornamental in southern Europe owes its 

 popularity to this old legend, but whence came the 

 artist's model? — A. II. Swinton. 



A Yorkshire Quern. — In answer to Mr. Winder, 

 I would say that querns are essentially pre-Celtic. In 

 the collection of the Scottish Antiquaries there is one 

 made from the section of an oak, which was found in 

 some carse-land, near the base of Dummyat, one of 

 the Ochil Hills.— J. W. Williams, D.Sc. 



Measurement of Time. — The measure of civil 

 time is the mean day. The sun is continually either 

 before or after the clock, that is, the sun does not 

 attain its meridian altitude, or south at mean noon 

 every day, but is sometimes before mean noon, and 

 sometimes after. 



Ifit souths before mean noon (that is, if it is before 



