68 Analyses of Boohs. [July 



which depend on unknown powers, which we are in the habit of 

 designating by the obscure name of vital powers, because they are 

 connected with the preservation and permanence of the species. 

 These mysterious agents surround, as it were, the' cradle of the 

 young plant, which they accompany in its flowering and fecundation, 

 and during its rise to maturity and its dissemination. 



Their influence is particularly conspicuous in the precautions 

 which are observed during germination, in the motions which the 

 peduncles execute, in exposing sometimes the flowers to the action of 

 fight ; at others, in withdrawing the seed from the injurious effects 

 of moisture. The explanation of all these phenomena, and many 

 others, will, however attract, the attention of botanists, and, sooner or 

 later, we may expect them to be elucidated. 



II. — Memoir on the Fresh Water Formation of Burdiehouse, 



6rc, By Samuel Hibbert, M.D., F.R.S.E. 



(From the Edinburgh Trans, vol. xiii.J 



This constitutes an excellent geological monograph ; the nature of 

 a novel limestone and its fossil contents being well developed, in so 

 far as they have been hitherto laid open to inspection. In the first 

 volume of this Journal, a paper, by Dr. Scouler, is inserted, containing 

 a description of two new species of Entomostraca, which the able 

 author had discovered in a limestone connected with the coal beds. 

 A comparison is there instituted between the vegetable and animal 

 inhabitants of existing pools and lakes and those of the coal formation. 

 The strata described in the memoir of Dr. Hibbert, appear to be 

 identical with that in which the new animals of Dr. Scouler were 

 imbedded, and also with the Bathgate rock from which the latter 

 geologist derived his Eidothea, the Euri/pterus Scouleri of Dr. 

 Hibbert, so that the accuracy of Dr. Scouler's opinion is confirmed, 

 at least in reference to this element of the carboniferous series. 



In our notice of this memoir, the new facts brought forward by 

 the author will be briefly alluded to, nearly in the order which he 

 adopts. 



1. Character of the Limestone. — Colour from a blueish or 

 blackish gray to olive brown or purple. Fracture sometimes slaty, 

 sometimes conchoidal. It occurs in the quarry in the form of regular 

 inclined strata, dipping at an angle of 23° or 25°. The joint thick- 

 ness of the mass amounts to 27 feet ; it is referred to the lower 

 beds of the coal series ; under it occur sandstone, shale, and a very 

 thin seam of coal ; immediately above it lies a thick mass of a similar 

 rock to that below it, containing, however, ironstone. Next comes 

 a thin bed of limestone with marine shells, and, lastly, the coal 

 measures of Loanhead, and at each extremity of the series described, 

 there is a fault. 



2. Fossil Flora.-^The Sphenopteris ajffinis occurs very abun- 

 dantly. The appearance of this fern is interesting, because it is 

 found in the old red sandstone near Cockburnspath, a rock which can 



