286 Miscellaneous. 



ON THE REMARKABLE DIFFUSION OF CORALLINE ANIMALCULES FROM 

 THE USE OF CHALK IN THE ARTS OF LIFE, AS OBSERVED BY EHREN- 

 BERG. 



An examination of the finest powdered sorts of chalk which are 

 used in trade has aiForded Professor Ehrenberg the following result, 

 that even in this finest condition not merely the inorganic part of 

 the chalk is become separated, but that it remains mixed with a 

 great number of well-preserved forms of the minute shells of Coral 

 Animdcules. As powdered chalk is used for paper-hangings, Pro- 

 fessor Ehrenberg also examined these as well as the walls of his 

 chambers which were simply washed with lime, and even a kind 

 of glazed vellum paper called visiting cards, and obtained the very 

 visible result, — demonstrating the minuteness of division of inde- 

 pendent organic life, — that those walls and paper-hangings, and so 

 doubtless all similar walls of rooms, houses, and churches, and even 

 glazed visiting cards prepared in the above-mentioned manner (of 

 which cards, many however, are made with pure white lead, without 

 any addition of chalk) present, when magnified 300 diameters, and 

 penetrated with Canada balsam, a delicate mosaic of elegant coral- 

 line animalcules, invisible to the naked eye, but, if sufficiently mag- 

 nified, more beautiful than any painting that covers them. — Pogg. 

 Ann. 1839. No. 9. 



NOTE ON PELORIA. BY MR. ADAM WHITE.* 



Linnaeus, in the * Amoenitates Academicse' for 1749 (i. p. 282. tab. 

 3.) described and figured the Peloria as a distinct genus of plants, 

 which he however subsequently in his * Species Plantarum,' (ii. p. 

 859. ed. 2.) included with the Antirrhinum Linaria (Linaria vul- 

 garis, DC.) of which he considered it a monstrosity (" naturce prodi- 

 gium') caused by the corolla of the plant becoming regular, that is 

 being furnished with 5 lobes to the lip, 5 basal spurs and pentandrous 

 flowers: even in 1763 Linnaeus thought it might form a peculiar 

 genus, " nisifructus semper abortiret." 



Since that time this kind of variation has been observed in many 

 other plants, as for example by M. Mirbel in the Teucrium campanu- 

 latum and many other Labiata {' El^mens de Physiologic Vegetale,' 

 &c. p^>«i. p. 221. note.). 



M. Bosc alludes to its occurrence in the genera Rhinanthus and 

 Dracocephalum ('Nouv. Diet. d'Hist. Nat.' xxv. p. 14G.). 



M. Guillemin observed it in Sideritis (* Diet. Ch. d'Hist. Nat.' xiii. 

 p. 164.). 



M. DeCandoUe has found it in several species of Linaria, An- 

 * Read before the Botanical Society of London, 2lBt Dec. 18o8. 



