■"jSirn^L^JanTma'] I^oijal Microsco^ical Society. 7 



giving the appearance of its being composed of a series of cells, and 

 in another instance two fibres seem to be plaited together. The 

 latter is very beautiful, and more uncommon than the indented 

 form. I before remarked that the vegetable growth generally 

 springs from the crystalline substance. This is not surprising ; 

 for masses of this substance are often seen attached to the foliage 

 of the vegetation, as though it were a result of fructification. In 

 addition to this, there is a considerable quantity of gelatinous- 

 looking substance, which appears to exude from the coal matter, or 

 to be in some way connected with its growth, and which, although 

 sometimes beautifully clear, often has a speckled appearance, Tlie 

 explanation of the speckled appearance I do not know, but occa- 

 sionally a number of the small dark bodies above referred to are 

 collected very near to the substance in question, as though they 

 have some relation to it. Other jihenomena connected with the 

 coal infusions are the presence of small crystalloid bodies which 

 float about freely in the water, and the projection of minute moving 

 protuberances from various parts of the coal-substance and vegeta- 

 tion. As to the former, there is little to say beyond that they are 

 not angular, and that one side which is less curved than the other 

 is usually distinguished by a dark line at the margin. The pro- 

 tuberances, which sometimes take the form of " tubes," and at others 

 of broad indented limbs, somewhat resembhng what I have seen in 

 other infusions to be mentioned, are of a dark colour. From their 

 movements they appear to me to have relation to animal rather 

 than to vegetable life, although they certainly are attached to the 

 vegetation, often several tubes being together at the end of a frond. 

 Occasionally a tube is much larger than usual, and then the move- 

 ment is very perceptible, and on one occasion I observed distinctly 

 the protrusion of a " tongue," which moved rapidly from side to 

 side. These phenomena are not limited to any particular coal. I 

 have experimented with Cannock deep (Stafibrdshire), Swaithe 

 (Barnsley), Glyn Neath, Wigan, and Anthracite, all of which give 

 analogous results, although, perhaps, the non-bituminous Cannock 

 deep coal and that from Wigan show a more luxuriant vegetable 

 growth. 



It will be thought that whatever vitality the vegetation of the 

 coal-beds may have retained, there can be no hope of producing life, 

 vegetable or animal, from chalk. The chalk with which I have 

 experimented was obtained from a well-boring in the Hertfordshire 

 hills, and it consists of minute organisms of various forms, some 

 round, others like straight or curved tubes, and many bodies resem- 

 bling the ovate coccohths so distinctive of the mud from the Atlantic 

 depths. A number of minute moving bodies closely resemble, except 

 in colour, those found in coal infusions. When this chalk, after it 

 had been finely powdered and kept in water for some days, was 



