64 REPORT—1852. 
for 20 or 30 miles, and which, when they traverse a flat country, bear a striking resem- 
blance to a railway embankment. They are invariably found to consist of water-worn 
limestone, gravel, associated with boulders both of limestone and sandstone, also much 
worn, and sand without clay. The larger boulders are generally arranged in a bed at 
the bottom of the ridge, the interstices often filled up with a marly stalagmite, the 
gravel and sand-beds lying above them. Mr. Young went on to describe some 
remarkable peculiarities with regard to the form and direction of the eskers, and con- 
cluded by stating it as his opinion, in common with others, that the drift had its 
origin in the sea currents and eddies, at the same time pointing out on a map which 
he has constructed the probable direction of the currents across the depressed tract 
between Galway and Dublin, when the country was submerged 500) feet. 

BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY, r1nctupinc PHYSIOLOGY. 
Borany. 
On the Development of Ferment Cells in the Warm-Water Flax Steeps. 
By Professor ALLMAN, M.D., M.R.LA. 
Tue author described a peculiar cellular growth which invariably accompanies the 
process of flax-steeping by the warm-water or patent method of Mr. Schenk. It is 
strictly analogous to the cells which are developed during the alcoholic fermentation, 
and first shows itself in the flax-steeps a few hours after the commencement of the 
steeping process, in the form of isolated cells of a nearly spherical figure containing 
minute colourless granules, but without any decided indication of a nucleus. These 
cells rapidly multiply by a process of gemmation, and ultimately form dichotomously 
branched groups which collect on the surface of the steep in the form of a thick 
yeasty head. The very peculiar and characteristic odour which accompanies the 
process of flax-steeping, appears to be exactly coincident with the formation of the 
cells, and to go on increasing with their multiplication. 
The cells appear by their presence to determine in the fluid a peculiar fermenta- 
tion, and the consequent decomposition of the intercellular substance which holds 
together the fibre of the flax stem, a process which, however generally confounded 
with common putrefaction, must nevertheless be carefully distinguished from it. 


On a Microscopie Alga as a Cause of the Phenomenon of the Coloration of 
large masses of Water. By Professor Attman, M.D., M.R.IA. 
It appeared, in little conglomerated gelatinous-like masses, and, when submitted to 
the microscope, it was found to consist of a number of fronds. The younger fronds 
were nearly spherical, and consisted essentially of a central mass of transparent ge- 
latinous matter, surrounded by a crust composed of minute cells, containing a green 
colouring substance. The crust being much slower in its growth than the internal 
nucleus, it soon burst, and the nucleus then, by an apparent spontaneous action, as- 
sumed a regular form, not unlike an hour-glass, which soon separated into two distinct 
fronds. Some of them being put into a glass tube, and placed in the window, were 
observed to arrange themselves in a mass on the side of the tube opposite to that 
exposed to the sun’s rays—that side of the mass towards the light being formed into 
a beautiful concave curve, which might, he thought, when fully investigated, reveal 
some important facts as to the nature and influence of light. 
Remarks on the Flora of the South and West of Ireland. 
By Professor BaLrour, M.D., Edinburgh. 
The communication on this subject contained the result of a three weeks’ tour 
just completed with some of his pupils in the southern and western districts of 
Ireland, viz. in the counties of Cork, Kerry, Limerick, and Galway. The floras of 
these districts belong to Professor E. Forbes’s Armorican and Lusitanian divisions ; 

