HARD WICKES SCIENCE- G OSS IP. 



261 



quite entire, and several of them being of species not 

 formerly recorded from the Carboniferous strata of 

 the West of Scotland. 



Perpendicular Holes in Rocks. — In a sec- 

 tion of what is, I believe, inferior oolite, underlying 

 sand at Manton Warren, near Kirton-in-Lindsey, 

 Lincolnshire, there are exposed to view perpendicular 

 holes of some ten inches in diameter, passing through 

 the successive layers of stones, and through the stones 

 themselves, as if bored. A depth of 5 ft. is exposed 

 to view, but how much deeper they go I do not know. 

 I observed three within a few feet of each other. 

 The diameter does not appear to decrease with the 

 depth. Will any one state the probable origin ? 

 Are they "pot-holes"? The stone obtained has been 

 broken up for roads. The warren is elevated above 

 the surrounding country. — J. A r . £>., Tuxford. 



A New Eocene Mammal. — A new genus of 

 pachydermatous mammals, nearly allied in its denti- 

 tion to Pakeotherinm, has been recently found in the 

 Lower Eocene beds of Transylvania. The fearful 

 generic name of Brachydiastematherium has been 

 given to this extinct creature. 



A New Oolitic Pterodactyle. — Hitherto 

 no Pterodactyle remains have been found in America 

 of older date than the Cretaceous period. News 

 comes to us, however, of a species of Pterodactyle 

 which has just been found in the Oolitic rocks of 

 Wyoming, whose outspread wings must have been 

 five feet from tip to tip. It has been named P. mon- 

 tanns. 



Geology of the American Lake Region.— 

 Mr. George Maw, F.G.S., writes as follows on this 

 subject : — " We must set aside the view that the 

 chain of large lochs is due to glacial excavation ; for 

 Ontario, the deepest of the lakes, running east and 

 west, is in lower latitude than Huron, the bottom of 

 which is 510 feet above that of Ontario ; and there is 

 no high ground about Ontario from which ice could 

 have originated as a preponderating mass, capable of 

 excavating Ontario 600 feet deep ; nor is there any mass 

 of debris anywhere to be seen about the lake as would 

 represent such an excavation." 



NOTES AND QUERIES, 



Water-Boatman. — Your readers, who are no 

 doubt familiar with the very savage instinct of this 

 insect, may be interested to learn my experience of 

 him. He really appears to be quite shark-like in his 

 nature. A few weeks since, whilst staying with some 

 friends in Cambridgeshire, to amuse the children I 

 collected from several ditches various Sticklebacks, 

 Whirligigs, Newts, a Frog, &c, and three Water- 

 Boatmen. These I thought might possibly make a 

 nice little "happy family"; but my hopes were 

 doomed, as the boatmen soon proved themselves to 

 be most formidable. Theyj attacked each of the 



animals before-mentioned except the Whirligigs, whose 

 movements were too quick for them. After killing 

 the insects and Sticklebacks, one fastened himself to 

 the frog's leg.—//. Hall. 



Laburnum Flowers.— Laburnum trees are in 

 blossom here now (September). Is not this an unu- 

 sual phenomenon? — R. II. Nisbet Browne, Folkestone. 



Palm Roots. — With reference to the question 

 propounded in your issue for October, as to whether 

 palm-trees have tap-roots or not, 1 find, on consulting 

 the highest authorities in the library of the Linna:an 

 Society, that the roots are fibrous masses. Stephen 

 Endlicher, in his "Genera Plantarum," published in 

 1836-40, writes thus : — " Palm re Plantre liques- 

 centes, acrobryje habitu peculiari. Radix palaris, 

 mox evanida ; radicular plurima;, cylindrical, sim- 

 plices et ramose, fibrillosre, in inolem conicam saape 

 ex parte hypogream dense compactce." Loudon, in 

 his " Encyclopaedia of Plants," writes: — "The lofty 

 stems of palms are supported by a mass of fibrous 

 roots, which frequently cross along the surface of the 

 ground." In the " Horuis Indicus Malabaricus," by 

 Henry Van Rheede, published in 1628, the author 

 states that the Palm diffuses its root-fibres widely in a 

 transverse direction. With regard to the interpre- 

 tation of the verse of Psalm xcii., where the righteous 

 are compared to the vigour of the Palm-tree, it would 

 be presumptuous in me, as a layman, to offer an 

 opinion or discuss it in a theological point of view. 

 Canon Tristram, in his "Natural History of the 

 Bible," alludes to the 12th verse of the above Psalm : 

 ' ' Here the life of the righteous may be compared to 

 the Palm-tree for many reasons. It flourishes in a 

 barren soil ; it requires constant moisture ; it is a 

 lofty tree, a straight tree ; it is always growing so 

 long as it lives, and it is always green, and always 

 bears fruit as far as possible from earth, and as near 

 as possible to heaven. We may add, too, the elas- 

 ticity and upward growth of its fibre, even when 

 loaded with weight." The following is extracted 

 from Mr. Hooker's translation of Le Maout et 

 Decaisne: — " Palms, perennial woody plants, elegant 

 or majestic in habit. Primary root decaying early 

 and replaced by numerous adventitious roots, which 

 are developed at the base of the trunk, and form a 

 compact conical mass, often very voluminous and 

 rising more or less above the soil, and in certain 

 cases raising the trunk and supporting it like the 

 shrouds of a ship." The Palm-trees with which I was 

 most familiar in India were the Cocoa-nut and Date. 

 Neither had tap-roots. Professor Bentley, in his 

 "Manual of Botany," writes: "The true or pri- 

 mary root, from its being formed by a direct elongation 

 of the radicle, generally continues to grow downwards 

 for some time at least, and hence forms a main trunk 

 or axis from which the branches are given off. Such 

 a root is termed a tap-root, and may be commonly 

 observed in dicotyledonous plants. On the contrary, 

 the roots of monocotyledonous and acotyledonous 

 plants, wbich are adventitious, are usually of nearly 

 equal size, and given off in variable numbers from 

 the radicle." The above remarks will, I think, show 

 that the palms do not possess tap-roots. — John 

 Colebrook. 



Roots of Palm-tree. — There are several kinds 

 of trees called Palm, and the first question to be 

 settled should be, Which is the Palm-tree of the 

 Bible ? Many are of opinion that it is the Phcvnix 

 doxtylifera, or Date-palm, which affords food to 

 both man and animals ; and I will, therefore, give 

 you a short description of the Palm met with by 

 Bonar in the desert of Sinai. He says : " The roots 



