Zoology and Botany. 345 



and its trunk is 22 feet in circumference at the base, 29 feet below 

 the first branches. This gives us a mean diameter of 1224 lines, 

 which, according to De Candolle's rule for estimating the age of 

 the yew, ought also to indicate the number of years. From three 

 sections obtained from this tree, Mr Bowman ascertained that the 

 average number of rings deposited for one inch in depth of its latest 

 growth, was 34f. Comparing this with the data obtained from 

 the eighteen young trees, he estimated the probable age of this 

 tree at 1419 years. The second of these trees is in the church-yard 

 of Darley in the Dale, Derbyshire, and its mean diameter, taken 

 from measurements at four different places, is 1356 lines. Hori- 

 zontal sections from its north and south sides gave an average for 

 its latest increase at 44 rings per inch nearly, which gives 2006 

 years as its age, by the mode of calculation adopted by Mr Bow- 

 man. He then proceeded to state his opinion of the reason why so 

 many old yew-trees were to be met with in church-yards : he con- 

 sidered that they might have been planted there at a period ante- 

 rior to the introduction of Christianity, under the influence of 

 the same feelings as those which prompted the early nations of 

 antiquity to plant the cypress round the graves of their deceased 

 friends. 



Mr Ball exhibited the skulls of a species of Seal common in Ire- 

 land, with the view of eliciting information, as he considered it to 

 be new to the British Fauna, and very distinct from the two al- 

 ready recorded. The present species was never known to become 

 tame, whilst the Phoca vitulina, generally considered the more com- 

 mon species of our coasts, was very easily tamed. — Professor 

 Nilsson, of Lund, at once pronounced this species to be his Ha- 

 liochcerus griseuSy forming a distinct genus from Phoca, and de- 

 scribed by him in the year 1820. It had been previously recorded 

 by Fabricius, under the name of Phoca gryphus* It is common in 

 the Baltic and North Sea, and to be met with in Iceland, and at- 

 tains a size of eight feet in length. In Sweden it was empha- 

 tically termed the Sea-seal, in contradistinction to those which in- 

 habited gulfs. He remarked that the name of Phoca vitulina had 

 been applied by Linnzeus, and subsequent authors, to three distinct 

 species, to which he had himself given the names of barbata, varie- 

 gatcLy and anneUata, Of these he had ascertained that a specimen, 

 captured in the Severn, and now in the Bristol Institution, be- 

 longed to the anneUata. — Dr Scoular remarked that the species 



