20 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



from one grown under different conditions, even still 

 more so. I hope Mr. Gibbs will continue his obser- 

 vations. He could not have a more interesting or 

 practical subject. — G. S. Boulger. 



Fertilization of Flowers. — Dr. M idler has 

 called attention to the occurrence, in some of the 

 Labiates, of two distinct forms, one with larger 

 hermaphrodite protandrous flowers, and the other 

 with smaller female flowers. He shows that the 

 latter can only be fertilized by the former, and that 

 they disappear when the former are not present. 

 We would suggest that otr botanical readers should 

 devote their attention during the coming summer 

 to the analytical structures of well-known and 

 abundantly-represented orders of plants ; and, further, 

 that they should also note the kind of insects which 

 frequent them, and whether these insects affect any 

 -special colours of flowers. 



GEOLOGY, 



Prehistoric Man in Japan. — Mr. E. S. Morse 

 sends a note to Nature, in which he gives an account 

 of the Kitchen Middensat Omori, in Japan, which con- 

 tained arrow-heads, bone implements, but no flint or 

 ■stone weapons. Mr. Morse believes these large 

 shell mounds were accumulated by a prehistoric race 

 of men in Japan. 



The Insect Fauna of the Paleozoic Period. 

 —Mr. Herbert Goss, F.L.S., has read a paper on 

 the above subject before the Brighton and Sussex 

 Natural History Society. This makes the third 

 •of Mr. Goss's papers on fossil insects, and it is equal 

 in character to its predecessors. In these three 

 papers the geological student is possessed of a most 

 valuable generalization of all that is known on fossil 

 entomology. 



Jointed Limbs in Trilobites. — Mr. C. D. 

 Walcott has just figured and described jointed limbs 

 in the genera Calymenc and Ceraurus, from the Tren- 

 ton limestone. Calymene senaria showed axial ap- 

 pendages with three joints. In Ceraurus pleurex- 

 anthemus the limb was five-jointed. The legs ended 

 in a single blunt end, and Mr. Walcott thinks these 

 •trilobites will be found to have five or six joints with 

 a terminal claw. He further thinks that the dis- 

 covery of these limbs more closely than ever as- 

 sociates the Trilobites with the King-crabs and 

 Eurypterids. 



The Cumberland Association of Litera- 

 ture and Science. — A copy of the Transactions of 

 •this vigorous natural history and literary society has 

 been sent us, and it is a pleasure to find so high a 

 degree of culture so far removed from the centres 

 where culture is supposed to be especially confined. 

 But the development of local science is nearly always 

 •dependent upon the personal interest taken in it by a 



few men, and there can be little doubt that the 

 great success of the Cumberland Association during 

 the last two or three years is mainly due to their 

 possessing such an indefatigable secretary as Mr. J. 

 Clifton Ward, F.G.S., of her Majesty's Geological 

 Survey, the author of a number of remarkably sug- 

 gestive papers on Geology and Physical Geography. 



Artificial Precious Stones. — MM. Fremy 

 and Freil have recently been experimenting on artificial 

 productions of corundum, ruby, and other crystal- 

 lized silicates. They showed that in a crucible of 

 refractory earth they put a mixture of equal weights 

 of alumina and minium and calcined them for some 

 time at a red heat. After cooling, they found two 

 layers, one vitreous (formed chiefly of silicate of 

 lead) and the other crystalline, and often presenting 

 geodes full of beautiful crystals of alumina. To obtain 

 the red colour of ruby, about two or three per cent, 

 of bichromate of potash was added to the mixture of 

 aluminia and minium. A silicate of aluminia was 

 produced by heating for some time a mixture of equal 

 weights of silicon and fluoride of aluminia. 



Precambrian (Dimetian and Pebidian) Rocks 

 in Caernarvonshire. — At a recent meeting of the 

 Geological Society, a paper on this subject was read 

 by Dr. Hicks, F.G.S. The author gave an account 

 of the special examination of the great ribs of so-called 

 intrusive felspathic and quartz porphyries which are 

 found associated with the Cambrian rocks in Caernar- 

 vonshire, made by him in company with Professor 

 Hughes, Mr. Hudleston, and Mr. Homfray last 

 summer. He described sections at and near Moel 

 Tryfan and across the mass from Pen-y-groes to 

 Talysarn, in which he showed that instead of being 

 of an intrusive nature, as hitherto supposed, the 

 whole, with the exception of a few dykes at those 

 parts, is made up of bedded volcanic rocks, lavas, 

 breccias, &c, similar to those found in the Pedibian 

 series at St. David's, and that the Cambrian rocks, 

 instead of being intruded by this mass, rest every- 

 where upon it unconformably, and the pebbles in 

 the conglomerate of the Cambrian at the base are, 

 as at St. David's, identical with, and must have been 

 derived from, the rocks below. Similar results were 

 obtained in the examination to the north and south of 

 Llyn Padarn, and the conclusion, therefore, at which 

 the author has arrived with regard to the great mass 

 which extends from Llanellyfine in the south to 

 St. Ann's chapel in the north, is that it is entirely 

 Precambrian, and that it belongs to the series de- 

 scribed by him under the name Pebidian at St. 

 David's. The other mass, extending from Caer- 

 narvon to Bangor, he considered also entirely 

 Precambrian ; and from the mineral characters ex- 

 hibited by a portion of this mass directly behind 

 Caernarvon, he thought it would prove to be, at 

 least at this part, of Dimetian age. The altered beds 

 near Bangor and their associated quartz felsites he 



