Miscellaneous. 67 



letter Dr. Giraud gave an account of the Horticultural Society's gar- 

 den at Bombay, of which he is Secretary, and alluded generally to 

 the nature of the vegetation in the neighbourhood. He also noticed 

 the mode of instruction adopted in the Medical College at Bombay, 

 in which he lectures on Chemistry, Materia Medica and Botany. 



MISCELLANEOUS. 



Description of a new family and genus of Lizards from Columbia. 

 By J. E. Gray, Esq., F.R.S. &c. 

 This lizard, which has just been sent me from Hamburg, forms a 

 peculiar family intermediate between the Chalcides and the Anadiadce, 

 having the smooth imbedded scales of the former and the complete 

 feet and femoral pores of the latter. 



Argaliad^e. 



Head covered with normal regular shields ; cheeks, eyelid and eye- 

 brows shielded ; lower eyelid scaly, opake ; nostrils lateral, anterior, 

 in the centre of a single nasal plate. Body subcylindrical, sides 

 rounded, smooth. Scales in thin, smooth, imbedded, transverse series, 

 scarcely overlapping ; of the back, sides and tail four-sided, longer 

 than broad, in alternating series ; of the belly, front of vent, and un- 

 der side of tail similar, but forming longitudinal series ; of the throat 

 broader than long ; of the armpits small, subirregular ; of the limbs 

 oblong, of the under side nearly granular. Limbs rather short, 

 strong ; femoral pores distinct, numerous ; claws short, compressed ; 

 tail cylindrical, tapering. 



Hab* Tropical America. 



Argalia. 



Like the family ; toes 5*5, unequal. 



Argalia marmorata. Brown, marbled with black-brown, beneath 

 paler ; throat black spotted. 



Hab. Columbia. British Museum collection. 



On the detection of Spirally -dotted or Scalariform Ducts, and other 

 Vegetable Tissues in Anthracite Coal. By Prof. J.W. Bailey, of the 

 U. S. Military Academy. 



On perusing an account of the results obtained by Schultz and 

 Ehrenberg (Annals, vol. xvi. p. 69) in the microscopic examination of 

 coal decarbonized by means of nitric acid and heat, I felt a desire to 

 repeat the experiments and obtain if possible some of those " white 

 splinters " which they found " composed of aggregated siliceous cells 

 arranged in regular succession, of the structure of the prosenchyma- 

 tous cells of wood." But just as I was about to commence the re- 

 petition of these experiments, it occurred to me that I might find 

 the decarbonization in every stage of progress among the masses of 

 some partially burned Pennsylvania anthracite with which a grate 

 in my room was filled, in which the fire had been allowed to smother 

 itself in its own ashes- 



F2 



