HARD WICKE : S S CIENCE- G O SSIP. 



187 



fragiHs, near Over. Enonymiis europecus, Weaver 

 Valley. Rkamnus cathartiais, Newton-by-Frodsham. 

 — James F. Robinson, Frodsham. 



A Glass-eating Lichen.— In reply to Mr. 

 G. S. Boulger, if he carefully looks at my paper he 

 will see that I have mentioned the conditions under 

 which the objects were seen by a Hartnach micro- 

 scope. If he will refer to Sanderson, Klein, Foster, 

 and Brunton's "Handbook to the Physiological La- 

 boratory," and many other works, he will see the 

 magnifying power is thus expressed : — Fig. A is, I 

 believe, about 450, fig. B about 200, and fig. D 

 about 2 diameters, fig. E being natural size. They 

 were drawn from the growth as it was placed, glass 

 and all, under the microscope without re-agents. The 

 drawings were by the camera lucida and in pencil. 

 The reasons why I concluded that these growths de- 

 stroyed the glass were these :— 1. When they occupy 

 a hole, it is entirely filled by it, no more, no less. 

 2. The growing processes always fill the radiating 

 furrows. 3. The cellular structure is embossed on 

 the glass. 4. No other explanation is admissible of 

 the formation of the holes. 5. The impressions 

 become confluent, as all areas do where growth com- 

 mences at different points and continues from the 

 margins. 6. It is known that calcareous, and even 

 silicious rocks, are eroded by the larger varieties of 

 lichens growing on them, as he may observe for him- 

 self. — H. J. JoJinston-Lavis. 



Carex Buxbaumii (Wahl.) — This rare plant, 

 which is confined, according to the " Cybele Hiber- 

 nica," to a very limited station in Lough Neagh, 

 near Toombridge, Co. Deny, had not been seen for 

 many years up to the present one. The last record of 

 its existence occurs in Science-Gossip for July 1st, 

 1867, in a note communicated by my friend Mr. S. 

 A. Stewart, of Belfast, where we are informed that 

 " two flowering stems were taken away." Although 

 diligently looked for several years subsequently, no 

 trace could be seen of the plant ; and in the "Guide 

 to Belfast," published by the Belfast Naturalists' 

 Field Club, on the occasion of the British Association 

 meeting in 1S74, we find a fear expressed that it had 

 become extinct. The winter of this year proved a 

 very wet one, and the waters of Lough Neagh con- 

 sequently rose far above their usual level. This 

 circumstance decided me to go and search for the 

 Carex, and endeavour to ascertain whether it still 

 existed, or had become one of the "lost plants" of 

 the British Flora. Several hours careful search, in 

 which I went over the ground almost by inches, 

 resulted, however, to my extreme delight, in the 

 discovery of a fine tuft of the Carex adorned with 

 a number of flowering stems. Of these I removed a 

 few, but I left untouched the tuft of perennial roots 

 which appeared in a very healthy condition. This 

 is the fourth occasion on which the plant has been 



gathered, since its discovery in 1835 by Dr. David 

 Moore, of Glasnevin, and its scarcity appears to be 

 accounted for by the fact, that in dry seasons the 

 plant may not flower, and as it is only in very small 

 quantity would consequently escape observation. — 

 Thos. II. Cony, Belfast. 



Drying Plants. — Mr. Buck's excellent article, 

 "How to make an Herbarium," has touched on a 

 subject of great importance to the " Science-Gossip 

 Exchange Club," that of mould in plants which have 

 not been made completely dry. How many sighs 

 would be saved to those who, having mounted 

 apparently lovely specimens, find them, a few months 

 after, enshrined in microscopic fungi ? If a little 

 longer pressing had been given them this would not 

 have been the case. May I be excused for this 

 appeal to collectors. — F.H.A. 



GEOLOGY. 



The Geology of Well Sections. — At a recent 

 meeting of the Geological Society, Prof. Prestwich 

 read a paper "on the Section of Messrs. Meux & Co.'s 

 Artesian Well in the Tottenham Court-road, with 

 notices of the well at Crossness, and another at 

 Shoreham, Kent ; and on the probable range of the 

 Lower Greensand and Palaeozoic Rocks under 

 London." The well-known boring at Kentish Town 

 in 1856 showed the absence at that point of Lower 

 Greensand, the Gault being immediately succeeded 

 by hard red and variegated sandstones and clays, the 

 age of which was at first doubtful, but which were 

 finally considered by the author to approach most 

 nearly to the Old Red Sandstone near Frome, and to 

 the Devonian sandstones and marls near Mons, in 

 Belgium. The existence of some doubt as to this 

 identification rendered the boring lately made at 

 Messrs. Meux's brewery particularly interesting, and 

 the method of working adopted by the Diamond- 

 boring Company, by bringing up sharply cut cores 

 from known depths, gave special certainty to the 

 results obtained. The boring passed through 652^ 

 feet of Chalk, 28 feet of Upper Greensand, and 160 

 feet of Gault, at the base of which was a seam, 3 or 

 4 feet thick, of phosphatic nodules and quartzite 

 pebbles. Beneath this was a sandy calcareous stratum 

 of a light ash-colour, passing into a pale or white 

 limestone, and this into a rock of oolitic aspect. 

 Casts and impressions of shells found in this bed 

 showed it to be the Lower Greensand, whose place 

 it occupied. The boring was carried further in the 

 hope of reaching the loose water-bearing sands of 

 this formation, but the rock became veiy argillaceous, 

 and, when 62 feet of it had been passed through, the 

 boring entered into mottled red, purple, and greenish 

 shales, dipping at 35 in an unascertained direction. 

 These beds continued through a depth of 80 feet, 



