QUESTIONS AUT) ANSWERS REPORTS. 281 



(Oatstions anb 3instocr.s. 



Burnishers. — I am informed that fjreat numbers of these stones 

 have been and still could be, if required, picked from the surface soil, 

 and in some cases from as much ay ten to fifteen feet in depth below 

 it in the neighbourhood of Measham, Willesley, Donisthorpe, Overseile, 

 etc., in Soutii Derbyshire, and Nor i;h- west Leicestershire. Can any of 

 our readers furnish some description of these valuable rocks, or moi'e 

 correctly fraj^ments and pebbles of rocks, stating size, colour, weight, 

 derivation, distribution, use, etc., of them, and whether fossiliferous or 

 not? I have reason to think that the study of these burnishers will 

 at any rate be of interest if not of service to some of us. — W. S. 

 Gresley, F.G.S., 27th October, 1882. 



[The stones to which Mr. Gresley refers as " burnishers " are, I 

 suppose, the a/iates which occur in the Bunter conglomerate and in 

 tlie drift (derived from the Bunter) of the Midland counties. These 

 agates consist of silica, coloured usually by a litttle oxide of iron, and 

 they were formed by water (containing silica in solution) trickling 

 through rocks and filling up cavities in its course. The beautiful 

 markings seen in polished sections of agates represent the various 

 layers of deposition, the outermost being the first formed, as a lining 

 to the cavity through which the water passed. Many splendid 

 specimens, illustrating the mode of formation of agates may be seen 

 in the Jermyn Street Geological Museum, Loudon ; they are, of course, 

 unf ossilif erous. Professor Buskin wrote some papers on agates, magnifi- 

 cently illustrated, for the " Geological Magazine" about ten or twelve 

 years ago, and he has lately reproduced these in his publication 

 entitled " Deucalion." As to the rocks whose disintegration yielded 

 the agates, my opinion is that they formed a ridge running roughly 

 east and west across the midlands — the southern coast line of the 

 Triassic sea, in fact. This question I have lately dealt with in some 

 detail in a paper published in Vol. III. of the Transactions of the 

 Birmingham Philosophical Society, entitled "On the Quartzite Pebbles 

 contained in the Drift and in the Triassic Strata of England ; and on 

 their Derivation from an ancient land barrier in Central England." — 

 "\V. Jerome Harrison, Birmingham, Nov. 13th, 1882.] 



Imports of .Socittifs. 



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BIRMINGHAM NATURAL HISTORY AND MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY.— 

 Genf.eax, Meeting — October 31st.— Mr. J. E. Bagnall exhibited the following 

 l^lauts: — (Ennnthe Lachen ilii, new to Warwickshire, from near Stratford; 

 Riibus emersistijltcs, Haywoods irare); PoUtnwgctoti dcnsus, Naptou-on-the-Hill 

 (rare) ; Carex ericetorum, gi-owii from roots obtaiued from the only British 

 station ; Eriophorum gracUe, and Utricularid intermedia, from the New Forest, 

 collected by Mr. Boltou King ; Artemisia Norveijica, from the only European 

 station, and Mi/ricaria Germanica, both from Norway, collected by Mr. J. B. 

 Stone; Dicranum fuscencens, a moss new to Warwickshire, from Ma.xtoke ; 

 a number of lichens, and the following fungi: — Bussiila Qiie!etii, Leptonia 

 lampropus, Hijdimm scrohiciilntitm, and Hi/grophorus hyjiothejiis, all new to 

 Warwickshire ; and others, including a few species from the New Forest, 

 collected by Mr. M. C. Cooke. Mr. Morley exhibited Polystichum angtdare 

 proliferum; and Mr. Wilkinson DcedaXei quercina, from Clent, and Peziza 



