376 Scientific Intelligence — Geology. 



ToUwitz, near Durenberg, Voigstedt, near Artern), species of Taxus 

 seem to predominate, even quantitatively, and among them the 

 Taaoites Ayckii^ formerly described, has an uncommonly wide distri- 

 bution, not only in the localities now named, but also occurs in the 

 Rhenish brown coal deposits, in Ilessenbriick, near Laubacb, in the 

 Wetterau, in Silesia, the Lausitz, at Redlau, near Danzig, in the 

 Sam land in Prussia, and Ostrolenka in Poland. Further researches 

 will undoubtedly shew similar results in relation to other species, as 

 for example the Pinites protolarix. 



(4.) Narrow annual rings, consequently a highIy>com pressed 

 growth, such as in existing conifera?,is only found, according toMartins, 

 in high northern latitudes, and, according to my own observations for- 

 merly pubhshed, on high mountains, is constantly found prevailing 

 in the bituminous trees, and impa,rts to some of the wood an uncom- 

 mon density and weight, similar to that of Guaiac wood. In many 

 species, I have counted 15 to 20 annual rings in the breadth of a line ; 

 of course in round stems, as in those pressed flat, the influence of the 

 compression must also be taken into account, though in other re- 

 spects its influence, as for instance on the walls of cells, is less than 

 might be imagined. A stem of a, Pinites protolarix, from the brown 

 coal-pits near Laasan, with a diameter of 12 inches in breadth and 

 16 inches in length, shewed, in this narrow circumference, not fewer 

 than 700 annual rings. Yet in the ancient, as in the present world, 

 there was a great diversity in the rate of growth even of the same 

 species, for in another nearly cylindrical stem of this tree, 16 inches 

 in diameter, only 400 annual rings could be distinguished. 



(5.) I have repeatedly observed on trunks and branches the broken- 

 off twigs and branches grown over by new layers of wood, and to 

 my great joy, in the brown coal-pit of Francisca, at Popelvvitz, near 

 Nimptsch in Silesia, a stump of a conifera perfectly shut in by the 

 more recent layers, which might have served right well for a Krater, 

 or drinking cup, for which, as Theophrastus tells us, the ancient 

 Thracians used these stumps of the pine. As the same laws of ve- 

 getation prevailed in the ancient and in the existing creation, thei-e 

 is nothing singular in this observation ; yet still it seemed to deserve 

 a passing notice. — (Arheiten der Schlesichen Gessellsch. 1847, p. 74; 

 and Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. v., p. 4.) 



2. On the Ampo, or Tanah ampo, an earthy substance eaten at 

 Samarang and in Java, its geological position, avid the organisms 

 it contains. — This earthy or clayey substance, already noticed in the 

 year 1792 by Labilardier, occurs, according to M. Mohnike, in many 

 points at a height of 4000 feet, among the secondary formations 

 which extend from north to south in the island of Java. It is in 

 general solid, plastic ; it is kneaded and formed into small rolls, 

 which are dried over a charcoal fire. These rolls are eaten with 

 great avidity and as a delicacy. Ehrenberg, on examining this 

 earthy substance, discovered in it from three to four polygastrics, and 



