ELISHA MITCHELL SCIENTIFIC SOCIETY. 63 



coquina, showing that after it had been laid down it was subjected 

 to the action of powerful currents rolling stones along. Some 

 months ago when I visited the place, in company with Dr. W. C. 

 Kerr and Mr. Bacon, U. S. Engineer, we found several of these 

 holes 1 and 2 metres in depth, and from .50 to 2 metres in breadth. 

 One of them especially interested us. It was 2 metres in depth and 

 2 metres in breadth, and had scolloped sides, with the convexity 

 turned inward, as if several small holes had combined to make this 

 large hole. Considering the age of this deposit, the general flatness 

 of the surrounding country, and the remoteness of stones that could 

 be used as drills, we have here a most enticing subject for investiga- 

 tion. And it is to be hoped that some enthusiastic young geologist 

 of our society will win his spurs by an elaborate paper on this coquina. 

 This scolloped hole has been drilled into the hardest rock, and must 

 have been some time in the cutting. Whence came that couple" 

 forming current and the stones ? The deposit is nearly a mile 

 from the river, with considerable bluffs betvveen, and the river 

 itself has here cut its way down twenty feet into the sand and clays. 

 But then perhaps the river did not drill those holes. Well, tht3 holes 

 are there and must be accounted for, and any one who likes can un- 

 dertake the work. 



SOME NOTES ON PLANT TRANSPIRATION. 



F. P. VENABLE. 



The announcements of results differing from those commonly ac- 

 cepted, made by certain recent experimenters in this line, led to a 

 collection of all within my reach relating to the subject and a repe- 

 tition of some of the experiments. Unfortunately I could only refer 

 to abstracts of the original articles. The author's methods of exper- 

 imenting were consequently unknown to me. 1 present the results 

 of my own investigation, with the hope that some members of the 

 society may be tempted to confirm them by their own experiments. 



Wiessner in Biedermann's Centralblatt f or 1883, p. 471, has noticed 

 that moistened leaves of plants transpire more freely than dry, con- 

 sequently a larger quantity of water is withdrawn from the soil by 

 the roots. He adds : "If there is plenty of moisture in the ground 

 the plant flourishes, but if otherwise, it droops and languishes. 



