HA R D WICKE ' S S CIENCE - G SSIF. 



99 



ground, for many acres around, of all vegetation. 

 When the grass is thus destroyed, a bed of peat is 

 laid bare of about one foot in thickness. This peat 

 is rendered so rotten by atmospheric decomposition 

 that when dry it blows away as a fine du.st, and in 

 this manner has been entirely denuded in many places. 

 The implements are found on this new surface. They 

 are manufactured from both greenstone and flint. 



Several of the implements have been manufactured 

 from fine black flints, which seem unmistakably to 

 belong to the noted layers of this material in South 

 England, and the Rev. Mr. Howchin asks whether the 

 presence of these flints on the Northumbrian hills 

 carries us back to a remote period, when the popula- 

 tion of this country consisted simply of a few petty 

 tribes, wandering from end to end of our island ; or 

 does it prove a state of inter-tribal commerce, when 

 the raw flint of the south was exchanged in barter to 

 the northern tribes for some corresponding ad- 

 vantage ? 



^Ir. Howchin also records some minor "finds" 

 consequent upon the Allendale find, and concludes 

 with a list showing at a glance from whence the 

 objects have been gathered. 



The catalogue of our mycological flora is scarcely 

 so numerous that we are not glad to notice additions 

 to it. We have just received an important contri- 

 bution in a list of the Hymenomycetes of Shropshire, 

 compiled by Mr. William Phillips, F.L.S. It is re- 

 printed from the "Transactions of the Shropshire 

 Archseological and Natural History Society," and con- 

 tains a series of plates, kindly lent by Dr. M. C. 

 Cooke, illustrative of the principal genera. 



The "Transactions of the Eastbourne Natural 

 History Society," for Jan. 21, 1881, contains an 

 interesting paper on "The Ancient Buildings of 

 Wilmington Priory and Church," by the Rev. AV. A. 

 St. John Dearsly, and the first part of a paper by 

 Dr. G. W. Royston Piggott, F.R.S., entitled "The 

 Limits of Human Vision and Touch compared." 



The Epping Forest and County'of Essex Naturalists' 

 Field Club is in a thriving condition, as we gather 

 from the epitome of its past and projected work, in 

 the President's (Mr. Raphael Meldola, F.R.A.S., 

 F.C.S.) annual address, published in Part IH. of 

 their Transactions. We have no doubt the club will 

 fulfil Sill its original aims. 



The monthly proceedings of the Isle of Man 

 Natural Plistory and Antiquarian Society, which 

 has been recently founded, exhibit a healthy activity. 

 Two papers have been contributed ; the first by 

 Mr. Spanton, entitled " Plant Lore," the second by 

 Mr. E. Birchall, F.L.S., entitled "Tropical Vege- 

 tation." 



The annual report of the Nottingham Naturalists' 

 Society is to hand, and contains papers on the 

 "Triassic Rocks of Cheshire, and their equivalents 

 at Nottingham," by Mr. James Shipman ; this is 

 accompanied by a figure of a section in Beverley 



Street, Nottingham, showing the Keuper resting 

 on an eroded surface of Bunter Pebble Beds : and 

 also a paper on " The Natural and Commercial 

 History of Cotton," by C. T. Musson, accompanied 

 by a plate. Mr. Musson concludes by giving some 

 cotton statistics referring to the total imports of raw 

 cotton into Britain in the diff'erent years, and the 

 amount of the United States crops. 



The " Annual Report " of the North Staffordshire 

 Naturalists' Field Club and Archaeological Society 

 contains some interesting papers — one, by Mr. 

 Alfred Smith, entitled " A Second Paper on Butter- 

 flies and Moths," being in chief an account of the 

 various methods adopted by insects to elude their 

 enemies; also "Notes on some Fossil Trees in a 

 Marl Pit at James's Square," by Mr. J. Ward, F.G.S. 

 The sectional report on Entomology shows that no 

 less than seven species have been found, not before 

 recorded as belonging to this district. Mr. Clement 

 L. Wagge, F.M.S., communicated a paper " On the 

 Summer of 1879 in the vicinity of the Staffordshire 

 Moorlands and Churnet Basin." The observations 

 were taken at Farley, near Cheadle, and one is ac- 

 companied by a diagram showing the wind force, 

 barometric height, rainfall, thermometer scale, &c., 

 during the months of June, July, and August, 1S79. 



W. B. H. 



RECREATIONS IN FOSSIL BOTANY. 

 Lepidodendron. 



No. IIL 

 By James Spencer, 



LEPIDODENDRON is one of the most common 

 of the fossil plants. Its remains are found in 

 almost all kinds of strata, throughout the length and 

 depth of the great carboniferous formation. The 

 casts of its stem and branches are frequently met with 

 in sandstones and ironstones, where they generally 

 retain their original rounded forms, their beautiful 

 scale-like markings, running spirally round the stem, 

 which characterise the lepidodendroid plants, being 

 often most exquisitely preserved. The shales over- 

 lying many coal beds are crowded with their impres- 

 sions, and in some places, where there is a suitable 

 matrix, all the various parts of the plant — stem, 

 branches, leaves and cones — may be seen matted 

 together, in abundance. 



The lejDidostrobus is well known to have been the 

 fruit of lepidodendron. The common form which 

 occurs so abundantly in all these coal shales, is about 

 six inches in length, though some are longer, and 

 some much shorter. They are generally in a flattened 

 state, and do not show their original internal 

 structure. 



I have one in my cabinet which I obtained at Low 

 Moor, which is in its natural rounded form. I found 



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