44 Discovery of Cucubalus baccifer 



depths, this gas may have become liquid, and combined with 

 the iron in that state ;* the sulphuret may have become acid- 

 ified, the acid uniting with the lime, and forming sulphate, 

 the iron being set free, and entering into other combinations, 

 such as those ochreous concretions so common in these depo- 

 sits ; or sulphate of ironf may be formed, and this again de- 

 composed by contact with calcareous or earthy substances. 

 In this way I have been able to produce, artificially, crystals 

 of sulphate of lime, by placing pieces of compact limestone 

 in solutions of the sulphates of the various metals, and leaving 

 them for a considerable time, the sulphates have become de- 

 composed, one portion is precipitated on the limestone, in 

 the state of sub-sulphate, the other portion of the acid unit- 

 ing with the lime, and forming transparent acicular crystals 

 of the sulphate, which shoot out from the mass itself. When 

 sub-sulphate of copper is formed in this way, and allowed to 

 continue for some time, it is again partially decomposed, and 

 converted into a carbonate. By the same slow process, 

 continued for two or three years, I have formed ochre and 

 other substances. Now, it would appear that some native 

 mineral compounds have been so formed, having frequently 

 observed in specimens of carbonate of copper, the crystals 

 arranged in bundles or masses round a nucleus of the sulphu- 

 ret, the surface of the limestone itself presenting rhomboidal 

 facets, as if it had been acted upon by an acid : also speci- 

 mens of sulphuret and carbonate of barytes. and other native 

 mineral substances. 

 Kensington, Nov. 1837. 



Art. XII. Notice of the Discovery of Cucubalus baccifer, in the 

 Isle of Dogs. By Mr. George Luxford, A.L.S. 



The following passages in Sir J. E. Smith's admirable Dis- 

 course read at the opening of the Linnean Society, appear so 

 apposite to the singular history of the plant which forms the 

 subject of the present communication, that I make no apo- 

 logy for using them as a preface to this article. 



*" Sulphuretted hydrogen becomes liquid at 50° F. under a pressure of 17 

 atmospheres, or beneath 578 feet of water, or 250 feet of rock." 



Geol. Researches, by De Labeche. 



" Sulphuret of iron has been formed by mice and rats falling accidentally 

 into a solution of sulphate of iron the vessel not being disturbed for some 

 time." PepyS) — Geol. Trans. 



f Some of the pyritous fossils of the Isle of Sheppy, exude sulphur, or sul- 

 phate of iron, according as they have been exposed to a damp state. 



