214 Miscellaneous. 



is now in the possession of Mr. Charles Adamson of this town, was 

 in good condition, weighing 2^ pounds. — Morning Chronicle of Feb. 6. 



ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CORMS OF COLCHICUM. 



At the sitting of the Society of the Friends of Natural History of 

 Berlin on the 19th of November, M. Link exhibited a corm of Col- 

 chicum arenarium, on which a flower-bud and the traces of two stems 

 past flowering occurred, one of which was situated in the middle with 

 the root-fibres. This proves that the base of the flower whence the 

 root-fibres take their origin, and which during the flowering period 

 is very small, subsequently increases in size and forms the true corm, 

 traces of the stem of which, raised by the upward growth, are long 

 visible. The growth of the corm, in which many have expected to 

 find some regularity, is veiy irregular. Colchicum arenarium, which 

 developes more flowers at one time than C. autumnal e, exhibits this 

 most distinctly. — Bot. Zeitung, Jan. 10, 1845. 



INFUSORIAL DEPOSITS IN AMERICA. 



** Charleston is built upon a bed of animalcules several hundred 

 feet in thickness, every cubic inch of which is filled with myriads of 

 perfectly preserved microscopic shells. These shells however do not, 

 like those beneath Richmond and Petersburg, &c., belong to the sili- 

 ceous infusoria, but are all derived from those minute calcareous- 

 shelled creatures, called by Ehrenberg Polythalamia, and by D'Or- 

 bigny the Foraminifera. You are aware that Ehrenberg proved chalk 

 to be chiefly made up of such shells, and you will doubtless be pleased 

 to learn that the tertiary beds beneath j'^our city are filled with more 

 numerous and more perfect specimens of these beautiful forms than 

 I have ever seen in chalk or marl from any other locality. 

 *' The following are some of the results I have obtained : — 

 *• 1. The marls from the depth of 110 feet to 193 feet are certainly 

 tertiary deposits, for I found them to contain Polythalamia of the 

 family Plicatilia of Ehrenberg (Agathestegens of D'Orblgny), which 

 family, as far as is yet known, occurs in no formation older than the 

 tertiary. 



" 2. The beds from the depth of 193 feet to 309 feet contain so 

 many species in common with the beds above them, that although I 

 have not yet detected the Plicatilia, I still believe they must also be- 

 long to the tertiary formation. 



" 3. The forms found in these beds agree much better with those 

 detected by me in the eocene marls from Panumkey River, Virginia, 

 than they do with miocene Polythalamia from Petersburg, Va., and 

 I am consequently inclined to believe that they belong to the eocene 

 epoch. 



" 4. All the marls to the depth of 236 feet present the Polythalamia 

 in vast abundance, and in a state of surprising preservation. The 

 most delicate markings of the shells are perfectly preserved, and some 

 of the forms are so large that they may be easily seen with a common 

 pocket-lens. 



*• 5. The lithological characters of the marls from 236 feet to 309 



