Geology^^Botany. 185 



1;ion, they reseinbk more nearly the scales of a fish. They vary consider- 

 ably in size, from being an inch to two inches in length, from a half to an 

 inch and a half in breadth, and from a tenth to an eighth of an inch nearly 

 in thickness. Their structure is entire. In some of thera the portion of 

 the scale which enters the cuticle, and which resembles so much that of 

 the human nail, is perfect, preserving all its original smoothness; in others, 

 the diflPerent plates of which the scales are composed can be distinctly tra- 

 ced ; and in some specimens, where a number of the scales are conjoined, 

 they are imbricated as when in the living animal, like the slate of the 

 house. No entire skeleton has yet been found, although there is one spe- 

 cimen which bears a very strong resemblance to the shoulder of a fish, and 

 another of very small dimensions, can, with a little help from the imagina- 

 tion, be made out as an impression of the whole animal. This quarry has 

 now been opened for several years past ; and it is to be lamented that no 

 amateur of the science should have been made acquainted with the fact of 

 the imbedded relics, until within these few weeks, as, from their great 

 abundance (being disseminated thiough the whole rock) many of the 

 finest specimens must have been destroyed or fallen into the hands of indi- 

 viduals incapable of estimating their value. What particularly enhances 

 the value of this discovery is, that the rock in which it has been made is 

 the old red sandstone, which belongs to that series and geological epoch ia 

 which so few organic remains have hitherto been found, and from which, 

 we first date the existence of the vertebral animals. The prodigious anti- 

 quity of this rock, and of course of the animals which lie entombed in it, 

 may be estimated from the fact, that the old red sandstone invariably dips 

 beneath the masses of trap which constitute the hills around us, and forms 

 the basis on which rests the coal and limestone of all the Scottish districts. 



17. Fossil, 7^wr</e.— Another of those interesting productions of nature, the 

 fossil organic remains of a sea turtle, has been discovered, and is now in 

 possession of Mr Deck of Cambridge. It is imbedded in a mass of septa- 

 ria, weighing upwards of 150 pounds, with two fine specimens of fossil 

 wood, and exhibits in a most perfect state this singular animal of a former 

 world, once undoubtedly an inhabitant of our shores. It was obtained 

 in dredging for cement-stone, about five miles from Harwich, in three fa- 

 thoms water, and, as a mass of stone, been used for some time as a step- 

 ping-block, from which humble station it was accidentally rescued by its 

 possessor for the admiration of the virtuosi. 



BOTANY. 



18. Account of the Sensitive Properties of the Stylidium graminifolia. — This 

 species, in common with several others, possesses a singular irritability of 

 the column, which,''in its natural state, is bent over the reflexed lip of the 

 corolla, between the two upright appendices, so as to bring the anthers and 

 stigma nearly in contact with the gerinen. When slightly touched near 

 the base, the column suddenly springs up, carrying the anthers and stigma 

 with a sudden jerk over to the opposite side of the flower. When left 

 quiet, after a short time, it gradually resumes its former position, but is 



