Proceedings. 27 



Evening Meeting. — December 19th, 1884. 



Mr. T. Cooper exhibited a fasciated growth of Asparagus. 

 It was suggested that the abundance of such growths noticed 

 this year might be connected with the heat or dryness of the 

 season. Mr. T. Cooper also exhibited a specimen of Imperata 

 arundinacea, a South African grass of great beauty. 



Mr. Edward Lovett, of Croydon, gave " Natural History 

 Notes on Jersey." 



Speaking first of the Geology of Jersey, he said that almost 

 all the rocks are igneous, there being very few primary rocks, 

 clay slates only coming to the coast in one spot. Eastward 

 of the harbour of St. Helier stands a huge mass of very hard, 

 pink syenite, on which the fort is built ; it is evidently part of 

 an old intrusive vein ; the surrounding rocks being coarse 

 diorite of large hornblende crystals, very liable to decompose. 

 At the south-eastern corner of Jersey the shore shelves very 

 gradually, and is strewn with broken rocks ; at low water, 

 dm'ing spring tides, a stretch of six miles in length is un- 

 covered, and affords a splendid hunting ground. On the east 

 coast volcanic lava occurs, the natural flow of which is 

 generally preserved ; but this form merges into the spherulitic 

 one. In the north of Jersey occurs an aplite or bi-granite, 

 composed of felspar and quartz, which is worked for stone- 

 ware. On the north coast there is no shore, and navigation 

 is always dangerous, owing to breakers and strong currents. 



Mr. Lovett described a cave he had explored, which is 

 100 ft. above the sea-level, and appears to have been used as 

 a workshop by prehistoric man — probably at the time when 

 both Jersey and England were part of the Continent of 

 Europe, and when an alluvial plain took the place now 

 occupied by the British Channel. The floor of the cave 

 consisted of decomposed felspar, below which was cave-earth 

 containing many flakes of worked flints. A large block of 

 sandstone was also in the floor of the cave. Neither sandstone 

 nor flint occurs in situ in Jersey. The cave was most likely 

 formed through the decomposition of a soft vein of syenite, 

 setting loose a block which was rolled about by the waves, 

 and would fully account for the cave being hollowed out. 



