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MISCELLANEOUS INTELLIGENCE. 



Art. I. Natural History in the English Counties. 

 SOMERSETSHIRE. 



The Qornu Arnmbnis occurs in the West of England, and was 

 once there the Stibject of a Jiagrant Sujpey'stition, — Sir, The fol- 

 lowing extract, which shows the opinion of our forefathers on 

 that beautiful fossil, the Cornu Ammonia, will perhaps interest 

 some of our readers, I am, Sir, yours, &c. — J, A. H, Ox- 

 ford, Jail. 21. 1832. 



" Upon the same river Avon, which is the boundary here 

 between this county (Somerset) and Gloucestershire, on the 

 western bank of it, is Cainsham, so named from Keina, a de- 

 vout British virgin, whom many of the last age, through an 

 over-credulous temper, believed to have changed serpents 

 into stones, because they find sometimes in quarries some such 

 little miracles of sporting nature. And I have seen a stone 

 brought from thence, winded round like a serpent, the head 

 whereof, though but imperfect, jutted out in the circumference, 

 and the end of the tail was in the centre. But most of them 

 want the head." [Camden's Britannia, edited by Edmund 

 Gibson, 1695. 



HAMPSHIRE. 



Gigantic Specimen of Feziza coccinea Scopoli. — Sir, I send 

 you a sketch of a splendid specimen ofPeziza coccinea, gathered 

 a few days since [March 13. 1832] near Alton, in Hampshire. 

 It answers the description of Peziza coccinea in Withering*s 

 Botanical Arrangement more nearly than any other, and may 

 perhaps be a variety of it ; at least, as I know no better, I call 

 it Peziza coccinea ; but its dimensions are much beyond the 

 usual size, being 8J in. in circumference. The stem and root, 

 too, are of unwonted length. The smaller plant, of which a 

 part only is seen in the drawing, is of itself larger than we 

 generally find the JPeziza coccinea, although so far below its 

 companion in size. It grows from the same nervelike stem 

 or root ; for it is difficult to say where the stem ends and the 

 root begins. The colour of the cup is, without, whitish, tinged 

 with pink and buff; and, within, rich scarlet. It is a magni- 

 ficent-looking thing, and more like the luxuriant productions 

 of tropical countries than the offspring of our own " chill 

 clime and weeping skies." 



As a general thing, these same scarlet pezizas have been 

 unusually fine this season, and most abundant from early in 



