Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 463 



'to 



of the sudden Appearance of the Web-spinning Blight of the Apple, 

 Hawthorn, &c." Among those of a morepurely scientific character may 

 be mentioned: the Rev. F.W. Hope's Descriptions of some hitherto 

 uncharacterized exotic Coleoptera, chiefly from New Holland ; Mr. 

 Waterhouse's Descriptions of the Larvae and Pupae of various Species 

 of Beetles ; Mr. Lewis's Descriptions of some new Genera of Bri- 

 tish Homoptera; Mr. G. R. Gray's Descriptions of several Species 

 of Australian Phasmata, &c. ; whilst others are of a mixed nature, 

 as Mr. Christy's Remarks on a Species of Calandra occurring in the 

 Stones of Tamarinds j Mr. Waterhouse's Account of Raphidia ophi- 

 opsis ; and Mr. Westwood's Description of the Nest of a gregarious 

 Species of Butterfly from Mexico. The part concludes with the 

 Journal of Proceedings, (a judicious addition, we think, and almost 

 new in the " Transactions" of British societies,) By-Laws, and List 

 of Members. The plates are beautifully executed, each containing 

 a great amount or variety of subjects. 



LXV1I. Intelligence and Miscellaneous Articles. 



DISCOVERY OF SAURIAN BONES IN THE MAGNESIAN CONGLOME- 

 RATE NEAR BRISTOL. 



ALTHOUGH some of the earliest noticed Saurian remains were 

 the fossil Monitors of Thuringia, discovered in the Continental 

 equivalents of our magnesian limestone, — characterized by the same 

 testacea and fishes which Mr. Sedgwick has so fully described in our 

 own corresponding formations in the North of England, — it does not 

 appear that Saurian remains have been until now detected in this 

 geological site in our own series. Recently, however, a quarry of 

 the magnesian conglomerate, resting on the highly inclined strata of 

 carboniferous limestone, at Durdham Down, near Bristol, has af- 

 forded some Saurian vertebrae, ribs, femora, and phalanges, together 

 with claws, the latter of considerable proportional size : a coracoid 

 bone has also been found, approaching very nearly to that of the 

 Megalosaurus. The general character of the bones seems inter- 

 mediate between those of this genus and the crocodile. Dr. Riley, 

 who submitted the specimens hitherto discovered, to the Literary and 

 Philosophical Society of the Bristol Institution, is understood to be 

 preparing a detailed account of this interesting discovery for the 

 Geological Society. 



The only Saurian remain hitherto found in this island in a site 

 approaching to this, was a fragment of a lower jaw apparently of a 

 Gavial discovered in the lower beds of the new red sandstone at Guy's 

 Cliff, Warwickshire. This fact was communicated by Mr. Conybeare 

 to Mr. Parkinson, and is noticed in the abridged work of the latter 

 on Organic Remains. 



EXPERIMENTS ON THE ACTIVE PRINCIPLE OF SARSAPARILLA. 

 BY M. POGG1ALE. 



M. Palotta, in 1824, announced an active principle in sarsaparilla 

 which he called parilline. Soon afterwards M. Folchi thought he 

 had discovered a new principle which he named smilacine. In the 



