119 REPORT—1850. y 
by violent and recent disturbances. The tertiary formations of the Ebro, and those 
of Leon along the Cantabrian chain, are often much elevated. In Leon they are even 
_ vertical near the chain, but soon resume their horizontality to range over the great 
plains of Castile. ᾿ : 
Postscript to Mr. Brycr’s Paper on Striated Rocks in the Lake District, 
p- 76. 
In the first paragraph of this paper it is stated that “up to this time striated 
rocks have not been noticed in the lake district.”” Thisis a mistake, which the author 
very much regrets; he had overlooked, when the account was drawn up, a paper by 
Dr. Buckland, in which the existence of scratched rocks in Westmoreland is alluded 
to. The passage occurs in the ‘ Proceedings of the Geological Society of London,’ 
vol. iii. part 2. p. 347, under date of Dec. 2nd, 1840, and is as follows :—‘ Dr. Buck- 
land had no opportunity of seeking for polished and striated surfaces in the high 
mountain valleys of the lake district ; but he found them on a recently exposed sur- 
face of greywacke in Dr. Arnold’s garden at Fox Howe near Ambleside; likewise 
near the slate quarry at Rydal; and on newly-bared rocks by the side of the road 
ascending from Grasmere to the Pass of Wythburn ; he is also of opinion that many 
of the round and mammillated rocks at the bottom of the valley leading from Hel- 
vellyn, by the above localities, to Windermere, owe their form to glacial action.” 
BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY, tnctupinc PHYSIOLOGY. 
Borany. 
On Anachdris Alsinastrum. By C. C. Bazincron, W.A., F.L.S, 
On the Grass-Cloth (Chit Ma) of India. 
By Dr. H. Crecuorn, Madras Army. 
The author stated that several species of plants belonging to the order Urticaceze 
were employed in Hindostan for the purpose of yielding fibres used in the manufac- 
ture of textile fabrics. He exhibited several articles of dress very white and light, 
which were manufactured from the fibres of the Behmeria nivea of botanists, the 
Urtica tenacissima of Roxburgh (Fl. Indica, iii. 590). The plant is cultivated in 
Sumatra, where Marsden says, ‘‘the shoots are cut down, dried and beaten, after 
which the rind is stripped off;”’ the fibres so obtained are of very great strength 
and fineness. In Penang it is likewise cultivated; the Malay name in that island 
is Rami. Specimens sent to the Agricultural and Horticultural Society from Dr. 
M‘Gowan of Ningpo, were found by Dr. Falconer to correspond exactly with those 
grown in the Botanic Garden of Calcutta, where it had been introduced from Su- 
matra in the days of Roxburgh, with a view to obtaining its valuable fibres. This 
is probably the very plant to which Kcempfer alluded so long ago as 1712: ‘‘Sijro 
or the Wild Hemp Nettle grows plentifully in most uncultivated places. This plant 
makes good in some measure what want there is of hemp and cotton, for several 
sorts of stuffs, fine and coarse, are fabricated of it.”’ (History of Japan, translated 
by Scheuchzer, 1.119.) In 1784, Thunberg, in his ‘ Flora Japonica,’ p.71, giving the 
same vernacular name to Urtica nivea, Linn., says, ‘“‘ Crescit copiosissime in Naga- 
saka, alibi. Cortex pro funibus conficiendis et filis validis ad texturas expetitur. E 
seminibus oleum causticum exprimitur.”” Dr. Cleghorn stated that the weight of 
the jacket was five ounces, and that it cost three rupees. ‘The fabric is coming into 
increasing consumption in S. India, being imported from Singapore and China in 
narrow webs. It is much esteemed for light clothing during the hottest weather ; 
in regard to which use James Cunningham wrote to Plukenet, ‘‘ Planta sativa Cé 
dicta unde efficitur Copou, pro vestibus zstivis.”” (Almagestum Botanicum, 1796.) 
The specimen No. 2012 of Dr. Francis Hamilton Buchanan’s Herbarium, corre- 
sponds with No, 4606 E. of Wallich’s Catalogue. 
ΝΥ με... .. ὦ 
