NOTICES OF SERIALS. 135 



Club; Alnwick Botanical Society, by the report of which we are glad to see 

 that it is proposed to publish its transactions annually, commencing at the close of 

 the present year with a " Flora of Alnwick," a step which ought to be followed by 

 similar societies, one of whose first objects should always be the careful prepara- 

 tion of local faunas and floras, as in that way can we alone hope to form a correct 

 estimate of the distribution of species. Natural History Society of Glasgow, con- 

 taining a very interesting note, by C. W. Peach, Esq., of Wick, in answer to the 

 ordinary assertion, that " the large Medusa preyed on fishes for food ;" from his 

 observations made on Cyanea aurita and C. capillata, or C. inscripta, of Peron, 

 it would appear that the small fishes rush, when attacked or alarmed, under the 

 umbrella among the tentacnla, taking shelter in the large folds connected with the 

 ova, and remaining there till the danger had passed, when they would emerge, and 

 sport and play about their sheltering friend. So closely would they lie when under 

 the umbrella, on seeing danger, that some young whiting were, at different times, 

 taken into a bucket with their shelter, and when permitted to rest for a short 

 time, they would come out and sport again as in the sea. These observations 

 would cause us to doubt the fish-eating propensities ascribed to these water- 

 framed creatures, and open up a most interesting field of observation for our 

 sea-side naturalists, which, no doubt, they will avail themselves of. Retrospect ; 

 Querist. 



No. 39, May, 1854 :— Man attacked by Polecats ; Feathered Residents in, or 

 Visitants to, the grounds of Terrick House ; Birds occurring near Richmond, 

 Yorkshire ; Birds, local names of, in North Riding of Yorkshire ; Ornithological 

 Notes ; British Evergreens ; Miscellaneous ; Proceedings of Societies — Royal 

 Society of Edinburgh ; Observations and Discussions on the Structure of the 

 M Torbanehill Mineral, as compared with various kinds of coals," by Professor 

 Bennet. Dr. B. was clearly of opinion that the Torbanehill mineral was a sub- 

 stance distinct from coal, and not to be confounded with it by any one who paid a 

 strict attention to the microscopical character of the two substances. Coal, he 

 believed to be formed by coniferous wood, and the structure which coal exhibited 

 under the microscope accorded with this idea, but in the Torbanehill mineral the 

 wood fibres of Conifera were not seen. He particularly referred to certain bodies 

 of a circular form, which were seen in transverse sections of all true coals, when 

 examined under a high magnifying power. These bodies he considered to form 

 the true marks of coal, and he never found them wanting in any specimens of true 

 coal. But in the Torbanehill mineral they did not occur, and their absence 

 showed it not to be a kind of coal, but a mineral having a different origin." In 

 the discussion which followed, several members took an active part. Professor 

 Balfour, who spoke at considerable length, was of opinion that the Torbanehill 

 mineral was " a cannel coal nearly allied to brown Methill, formed from Acro- 

 genous plants, containing scalariform tissue, and an abundance of yellow gas, 

 giving matter apparently the altered contents of cells." Professor Gregory ap- 

 proved generally of the observations of Professor Balfour, and proceeded to the 

 chemical aspect of the question, and expressed his conviction that the general 

 chemical characters of the mineral did not differ in any essential particular from 

 Methill, and, perhaps, some other kinds of undoubted coals. Dr. Wilson called 

 attention to the affinity that existed between the Torbanehill mineral and bitumi- 

 nous shale. Dr. Douglas Maclagan inquired of Dr. Bennett, with regard to the 



