260 



HARDWICKE'S SCIENCE -GOSSIP. 



coloured plates are of the very highest degree of 

 excellence, and it is long since we have seen illustra- 

 tions of natural-history books so artistically executed. 

 There can be no doubt that this artistic superiority 

 will of itself give this much-needed work an extensive 

 circulation. It is edited by Dr. Robert Hogg, F.L.S., 

 and is chaperoned, we believe, by the well-known 

 and energetic Woolhope Naturalists' Field Club. 

 The letter-press contains outline woodcuts of every 

 variety of apple aud pear in cultivation, besides other 

 engravings of high merit. 



ksu 



mm 



Fig. 220. Median prolification in Common Daisy. 



Monstrosity in the Daisy. — The above is an 

 illustration of median prolification occurring in a 

 specimen of the common Daisy [Bellis perennis) found 

 at Cobham. It occurs frequently in gamosepalous 

 and gamopetalous flowers, when it is known under 

 the term of "hose in hose," but we have never seen 

 it before in a composite flower. 



GEOLOGY. 



The late Mr. Thomas Celt, F.G.S. — It is 

 with much regret that we have to announce the death 

 of Mr. Thomas Belt, F.G.S., one of the most dis- 

 tinguished of the younger school of naturalists, who 

 died after a short illness, of rheumatic fever, at 

 Denver, United States, in the 46th year of his age. 

 He was a frequent and valued contributor to our 

 columns, and only a few weeks ago sent us the 

 account of his discovery of a human skull at Denver, 

 under circumstances indicating high antiquity. He 

 was the author of several works on natural history, 

 the best known of which is the "Naturalist in 

 Nicaragua." 



What are Conodonts? — At a recent meeting 

 of the Natural History Society of Glasgow, Mr. John 

 Young, F.G.S., read some notes on a group of fossil 

 organisms termed Conodonts, which have recently 

 been discovered in the Carboniferous limestones of the 



Ayrshire coal-field by Mr. John Smith, of the Eglintoia 

 Ironworks, Kilwinning. These organisms are minute, 

 slender, conical, tooth-like bodies of varying forms, 

 of a brownish colour, and having a glistening or 

 enamelled appearance ; few of them exceed an eighth 

 of an inch in length, many of them being much 

 smaller ; they are mostly of a comb-like form, being 

 serrated along one of the sides with a row of teeth, 

 often of unequal length and stoutness. Conodonts 

 were first brought under the notice of geologists by 

 Dr. Pander in 1856, in a work descriptive of the 

 fossil fishes of the Silurian formation in Russia, in 

 which country they are found ranging in strata from 

 the Upper Cambrian to the Carboniferous deposits. 

 In America they have also been discovered in the 

 Devonian and Carboniferous formations ; Professor 

 Newberry having figured and described a number of 

 Carboniferous forms in his work on the palaeontology 

 of Ohio. But until this discovery of Mr. Smith's, no 

 remains of Conodonts seem to have been noticed in the 

 strata of the several formations in Britain. Mr. Young 

 stated that he had recently the opportunity of sub- 

 mitting Mr. Smith's specimens to a Canadian palae- 

 ontologist, Mr. Jennings Hinde, while on a visit to 

 this country, and he stated that they were closely 

 related to the American forms, especially to those 

 described by Prof. Newberry. Although Conodonts 

 have now been known to palaeontologists for more 

 than twenty years, great doubts still exist as to what 

 group of animals these curious teeth-like organisms 

 belong. Dr. Pander, their first discoverer, thought 

 they were the teeth of a group of cyclostomatous 

 fishes allied to the present lampreys. Professor Owen 

 doubts their fish affinities very much, and says some 

 of them may be the dentated claws of small Crustacea ; 

 others may be the teeth booklets or denticle; of naked 

 mollusca or annelides. Professor Newberry thinks 

 Dr. Pander is right in referring them to fishes ; if so, 

 fish-life will have to be carried forward to a much 

 earlier period in the history of our globe (namely, the 

 Cambrian), no undoubted fish-remains being at present 

 recorded from strata older than the Upper Silurian. 

 These Conodonts are found in both the upper and 

 lower limestones of the Ayrshire coalfields; upwards 

 of thirty forms have already been discovered, and it 

 is probable the number may be increased by further 

 researches in the deposits. Along with the Cono- 

 donts, Mr. Smith has also found a new group of fossil 

 sponges, different from those of Hyalonema, which 

 he discovered last year in the Lower Limestone series 

 at Cunningham Pedland, near Dairy. The silicious 

 spicules of this new group of sponges from the Upper 

 Limestone are of various types, and Mr. Young stated 

 that at present the forms were being examined by 

 Professor Voting and himself, and they intended 

 bringing them up fit a future meeting. The same 

 deposit also contains an interesting group of small 

 forms of mollusca, in a fine state of preservation, many 

 of the univalve or spiral shells, having their mouths 



