18 
The suggestion that the plant alone possesses the powers of 
appropriating the inorganic substances as its food, requires further 
investigation. 
In 1837, Mr. Andrew Crosse, the electrician, was pursuing 
some experiments on electro crystallization, and in the course of 
his investigations on solutions of Silicate of Potassa, some curious 
insects were found in the solution, and were named Acarus Crosseri. 
Since then the same organisms have appeared in the solutions of 
Nitrate of Silver, used for photographic purposes. 
In conclusion then, I would observe we have no lines of 
demarcation which we can point to as separating the animal and 
vegetable kingdoms. 
Hit. 
THE CYPRIS CLAY OF THE WEALD, 
BY 
CAPT. McDAKIN. 
OcTOBER 4, 1882, 
We, of East Kent, are fortunate in possessing a large slice of 
what is known as the Wealden formation ; that charmingly 
picturesque country included between the cretaceous ranges of the 
North and South Downs. The central part constituting the 
Hastings Sands is, like an island, surrounded by the wide undu- 
lating valley of the Weald Clay, a portion of which is traversed 
by the South Eastern Railway between Ashford and Tunbridge 
junction, and which may be taken as an example of its surface 
configuration. Its geological position may be regarded as an upper 
one in the great secondary division, coming in between the close of 
the oolite and the lowest beds of the cretaceous series. It is 
remarkable too as being a fresh water deposit, the beds of Petworth 
and Bethersden marble which it furnishes, being frequently 
conglomerate masses of fresh water shells. There are other and 
additional evidence of its fresh water origin, so much so that 
geologists have come to the conclusion that the Wealden formation 
is the delta of a large river, which at one time drained a continent 
situated to the Westward, and now covered by the deep waters of 
the Atlantic Ocean. This extensive delta, as large as that of the 
Ganges of the present day, contained lakes and pools in which 
pond life formed a small world of its own. In these ancient lakes 
' the Cypris and its allies abounded, so much so that the cast off 
shells of these minute creatures give some of the beds of clay a 
