14 NATURAL SCIENCE [January 



grounds, which are first met with at Jimbour. It is probable, how- 

 ever, that the sandstone and shales of the Mesozoic Coal Measures 

 immediately underlie the soil beneath the road. At Jimbour, near 

 the edge of the basalt, a coal-seam is met with at the depth of 60 

 feet. . . . The basalt is disposed in several thick beds, which 

 once formed continuous lavaform sheets. They dip to tlie south- 

 west, or perhaps, more correctly speaking, have been spread out over 

 a surface gently sloping in that direction. They might at first sight 

 be supposed simply to overlie the Triasso-Jurassic Coal Measures, and 

 therefore to be of Tertiary age ; but as we occasionally find sedi- 

 mentary strata of similar character to those of the Coal Measures 

 interposed between two beds of the basalt, there can be little doubt 

 that the latter are older than the outbursts of Tertiary lavas, and in 

 fact contemporaneous with the Coal Measures. There are, however, 

 strong grounds for suspicion that the basalts had suffered consider- 

 able denudation before the deposition of the sedimentary rocks west 

 of Jimbour ; that, in fact, there is an unconformity within the 

 Trias-Jura area. A great thickness of the l^asalt beds is met with 

 near the centre of the ' range,' whereas at Jimbour and the other 

 western outposts of the denuded basalt only the lowest bed is seen. 

 ... It is evident from the sections of Ironpot, Boughyard, and 

 Jumma Creeks that, as the base of the volcanic series (basalts) rests 

 directly on the granite, the whole of the immense thickness of 

 sedimentary beds lying between the Toowoomba basalts and the 

 Brisbane tuffs is locally absent. In other words, there is what is 

 called in geology an ' overlap.' The base of the Triasso-Jurassic 

 series as seen at Brisbane is on a much lower horizon than the base 

 of the same series as seen at Ironpot Creek. The lower beds of the 

 series had to be built up so as to fill up existing depression in the 

 surface, before the upper beds were deposited at such an altitude as 

 to cover the higher portions of the old surface." 



Disease in Lilies 



From the U.S. Department of Agriculture (Division of Vegetable Phy- 

 siology and Pathology, Bulletin 14) we have received a preliminary 

 account by Mr Albert F. Woods of investigations into the cause of 

 the spotting and distortion of the leaves and flowers of lilies, which 

 have given much anxiety to American horticulturists. He believes 

 the disease to be due to a combination of causes — a weak stock of 

 bulbs, careless cultivation, and the attacks of mites, aphids and 

 fungi. It is hoped that a rigorous selection of bulbs for propaga- 

 tion and a more scientific system of culture will check the progress 

 of the disease. It is startling to read in a publication of this de- 

 partment that " the bulb mite {Bhizoglyphus echinops) is a white, 

 sluggish insect with brown legs." 



