470 Natural History in Foreign Countries, 



millimetre in length, and furnished with umbilical cords. The shell was 

 formed of phosphate of lime and scarcely a trace of the carbonate of lime 

 could be discovered. This, it may be remarked, invalidates M. Blainville*s 

 account of eggs expelled by the animal ; and M. Jacobson*s, of the httle 

 shells being parasites. {Bulletin des Sciences^ tom. xiv.) 



Earthworm oviparous. — M. L^on Dufour appears to have determined 

 that the earthworm (Lumbricus terrestris) is an oviparous and not a vivi- 

 parous animal. The eggs are of a very peculiar structure, being long, ta- 

 pering, and terminated at each end by a pencil of fringed membranaceous 

 substance. They have more the appearance, indeed, of a chrysalis or a 

 cocoon, than of an egg ; but their pulp, &c., prove them to be true eggs. 

 The worms when hatched are very agile, and when disturbed will some- 

 times retreat for safety within the shell which they have just quitted, or in- 

 stinctively dig into the clay. {Ann. Sc. Nat., Juin, 1828. See also v. 17.) 



Vegetable Remains in Coal. — From a comparison of the vegetable remains 

 which accompany the deposits of anthracite in the Alps, with those which 

 characterise the coal formations, it appears that a complete identity of 

 genera and (where the specimens are perfect enough) of species exists in 

 each ; but no relation can be traced between those and the remains found 

 in the lias and oolitic formations. Botany, therefore, in this case, leads to 

 a conclusion almost directly opposite to that which has been deduced from 

 observations purely geological, and the study of fossil animals. The iden- 

 tity, if not the close analogy, of plants found in coal-measures (du terrain 

 houiller), in all parts of the globe where coal-fields have been examined, 

 leads us naturally to suppose that the same kind of vegetation existed over 

 the globe at the epoch of the coal formations. Though this is probable, it 

 is not certain, as we still want data for determining the vegetable produc- 

 tions of this period, between the tropics and in the polar regions. Even 

 admitting it in its full extent, we must not thence infer that this uniformity 

 continued during the formation of lias, oolite, chalk, and the strata of the 

 Paris basin. 



M. Brongniart is of opinion that, at the period of the formation of the 

 lias, there were two great zones of terrene vegetation, the tropical and the 

 temperate ; the former being that which had constituted the only vegetation 

 when the coal-measures were deposited. That the remains of plants belong- 

 ing to the tropical zone are now found in Alpine anthracite, he explains by 

 referring to their transportation, by means of water, from the tropics ; an 

 explanation rendered probable from the remains being always in scattered 

 fragments, never in quantity, nor in a position to indicate that they have 

 grown where they are now found. 



GERMANY. 



Distant Sight. — Ross, in his Voyage to Baffin^ s Bay, proved that a man, 

 \inder favourable circumstances, could see over the surface of the ocean to 

 the extent of 150 English miles. It is not probable that any animal 

 exceeds this power of vision, though birds, perhaps, excel men and most 

 quadrupeds in sharpness of sight. Schmidt threw at a considerable dis- 

 tance from a thrush (Turdus musicus) a few small beetles of a pale grey 

 colour, which the unassisted human eye could not discover, yet the thrush 

 observed them immediately and devoured them. The long-tailed titmouse 

 (Parus caudatus) flits with great quickness among the branches of trees, and 

 finds on the very smooth bark its particular food, where nothing is percep- 

 tible to the naked eye, though insects can be detected there by the micro- 

 scope. A very tame red-breast (Sylvia Rubecula) discovered flies from the 

 height of the branch where it usually sat, at the distance of 18 ft. from the 

 ground, the instant they were thrown down j and this, by bending its head 

 to one side, and using, of course,, only one eye. At the same distance a 



