‘Miscellanies. 227 
sophical Transactions, I stated they were, in a lecture given at the 
Royal Institution, on Lord Rosse’s telescope, in May, 1843, I must, 
however painful to me to do so, regard the remains of that telescope, 
which I visited not long ago, as a monument of failure. I therefore 
entreat his son, seeing that his father’s veracity is impugned by doubts 
which have been recently and publicly expressed by one of the first 
astronomers of Europe, to give to the world every information on the 
subject which his father’s manuscripts supply ; assuring him, however, 
that till this be done by him, and till i¢ demonstrates the contrary, there 
shall be at least one of his father’s friends who believes that by Sir W. 
Herschel’s pen plain or naked truth was never violated. 
19.. Notices drawn from a letter of our London Correspondent, dated 
June 10, 1845. : 
Silicification A memoir on the microscopical examination of the 
chalk and flint of the South East of England, illustrated by drawings and 
several microscopes, with fossil and recent subjects, was read before the 
Geological Society by Dr. Mantell, Wednesday, June 4. It described 
the silicification of organic bodies, and particular reference was made to 
Mr. Dana’s remarks on pseudomorphism in the April No. of this Jour- _ 
nal, Vol. xvi, No. 2.. Weare evidently approaching a period when 
all the siliceous petrifactions, even those of gigantic trees and extensive 
forests, will be explained. 
Sigillaria and Stigmarie.—The identity of these fossil trees of the 
coal formation, as described in Dr. Mantell’s Medals of the Creation, 
has been fully confirmed. Dr. Buckland read before the Geological 
Society a letter from Mr. Binney, the discoverer of the stem and roots 
figured in the Medals—confirming his previous account, and leaving no 
doubt that the Stigmarie are the roots of the Sigillaria. “ But they are — 
Still very marvellous fossils, for we have no roots with which they are 
at all analogous; the regular quincunx arrangement of the tubercles and 
the articulation of the fibrils differ from any recent known thing.” 
Plumbago formed by pressure.—This subject was brought forward at 
the same meeting. ‘The only good mine of graphite (black lead) is 
exhausted of its best kind; and to meet the demand for pencils, now 
greater than ever, they search over the heaps of rejected ore formerly 
thrown aside.” “This rubble is reduced to an impalpable powder and 
then subjected to great pressure in moulds, and the result has been the 
Most pure and beautiful graphite; and the artificial mineral is now cut 
_ Up for our best pencils.” he 
Crosse’s Accari.—* These insects, which possess the privilege of 
living, like demons, where all other beings would perish, have been 
found in the strongest liguid volatile ammonia, without any galvanic © 
agency.” ah 
