THE ANNALS 



AND 



MAGAZINE OF NATURAL HISTORY. 



[SECOND SERIES.] 



" perlitora spargite museum, 



Naiades, et circiim vitreos considite foutes : 

 Pnllice virgineo teneros hic carpite flores : 

 Floribus et pictura, div£e, replete canistrum. 

 At vos, NymphcB Craterides, ite sub undas ; 

 Ite, recurvato variata corallia trunco 

 Vellite muscosis e rupibus, et mihi conchas 

 Ferte, Deae pelagi, et pingui conchylia sucoo." 



N. Parthenii Giannettasii Eel. 1. 



No. 85. JANUARY 1855, 



I. — Notes of an Excursion to the South of France and the 

 Auvergne in search of Diatomacese. By the Rev. William 

 Smith, F.L.S., Professor of Natural History, Queen^s College, 

 Cork. 



[With a Plate.] 



A STATEMENT of the results of an excursion made in the course 

 of last spring to the shores of the Gulf of Lyons and the vol- 

 canic district of the Auvergne, may have some interest, at a time 

 when much attention is being given to the minute organisms 

 that more especially formed the object of my researches. 



I have always thought that the geographical distribution of 

 species in the Diatomacese is far more general and uniform than 

 that in the higher orders of vegetable forms, and this opinion 

 has received ample confirmation from the examination of the 

 products of the various localities explored during the above 

 journey. 



While the Phanerogamous flora of the South of France is so 

 widely different from that of the British Isles, that the most 

 superficial observer cannot fail to be struck with its novelty, the 

 Diatomaceous growth of its streams and lakes, and of that por- 

 tion of the Mediterranean Sea that washes its coasts, is almost 

 identical with that of our more northern localities. 



Ann. ^ Mag. N. Hist, Ser.2. Vol.xy. 1 



