British Association. 125 



innumerable in the Kimmeridge clay, lived, like recent oysters, upon 

 infusoria ; and consequently the conclusion is unavoidable, that the 

 Kimmeridge clay, like the chalk, contains a considerable per-centage 

 of these minute and indestructible bodies which the microscope dis- 

 covers in it, and is not the mere comminuted detritus of more an- 

 cient and unorganized materials. With these facts established, we 

 may still further conclude from analogy, that a similar ciliary appa- 

 ratus and similar infusorial food were common to the still earlier 

 bivalves in the seas of the transition formation ; and we may then 

 ask, — what right have we, in the absence of a careful microscopic 

 examination of still earlier rocks, to deny the possibility of any por- 

 tion of their mass being due to the agency of siliceous infusoria ? 



June 20. — The Rev. L. Jenyns read a paper " On the Turf of the 

 Cambridgeshire Fens." 



This turf was not formed by sphagnum, as most peat, but from 

 various species of aquatic plants which had been accumulated for a 

 long period of years above the remains of forest trees which lie 

 buried at the bottom of the moor. There are two distinct kinds of 

 turf, the upper and the lower. The former is the more compact and 

 heavy of the two ; the latter consists entirely of the bark, wood 

 and branches of the submerged trees. The turf is not now rapidly 

 formed, on account of the improved system of drainage. Formerly 

 it was supposed to grow about twenty inches in sixteen years. 



Sir R. Schomburgk read a description of the Murichi, or Ita Palm 

 of Guiana. This tree grows from the Llanos of Cumana to the 

 western tributaries of the Rio Negro and the mouth of the Amazon, 

 or over an area of 550,000 square miles. It was called by Father 

 Gumilla the arbol de la vida, or tree of life, on account of its various 

 uses. It is of the greatest importance to the inhabitants of the 

 country in which it grows. The trunk and its leaves are used for 

 various household purposes. The sap is a saccharine fluid, much 

 drunk by the natives. The flowers aff'ord a sweet fermentable liquid, 

 resembling champagne. The pith of its trunk afibrds a kind of sago. 

 Even in its decay this palm is of use, and affords a delicacy to the 

 Indians, which likewise many colonists do not refuse, namely, the 

 larva of a large beetle. The Curculio palmarum is found in large 

 numbers in the pith when the trunk is near its decay, and which, 

 when boiled or roasted, resembles in taste the marrow of a beef bone. 

 Its average height is about fifty feet, and it has been observed grow- 

 ing at a height of 3000 to 4000 feet above the level of the sea. 



Prof. AUman laid before the Section a monstrosity occurring in 

 Saxifraga Geum. The three external verticels of the flowers were 

 normal, but between the stamens and pistil there was developed a 

 series of adventitious carpels crowded upon the margin of a cup-like 

 production which surrounds the lower half of the pistil. These ad- 

 ventitious carpels were characterized by their backs being turned 

 towards the axis of the flower. The carpels bear ovules on their 

 margins, which acquired a very considerable degree of development, 

 becoming completely anatropous, like those in the normal ovary. 

 Dr. Allman explained this monstrosity by supposing the existence of 



