Miscellaneous. 467 
lake-dwellers were much smaller than ours; in form and size they 
approach much more closely to Linum perenne, Linn., a species 
which still grows in the wild state in Germany; so that we might 
conclude that our common flax is a form produced by cultivation 
from the L. perenne. 
A great number of remains of wild plants have also been recog- 
nized. The following species of eatable fruits and tubers have been 
observed :—1. Raspberries (Rubus ideus, Linn.) ; 2. Strawberries 
(Fragaria vesca, Linn.), of which the seeds are found in masses ; 
3. the Elder (Sambucus nigra), the berries already serving for the 
preparation of cakes; 4. the fruit of Trapa natans, which was 
formerly widely diffused, but is now an almost extinct plant among 
us; 5. a great quantity of nuts, belonging to the two forms which 
have been recently distinguished—Corylus avellana, Linn., and C. 
glandulosa ovata, Willd. ; 6. seeds and leaves of the beech (Fagus 
sylvatica, Linn.), indicating the abundant use of the fruit of that 
tree; 7th and lastly, the peculiar tubers of a plant similar to our 
Equisetum Telmateja, Linn., which is very rich in starch, serving, no 
doubt, as food for the inhabitants, as it is likewise found carbonized 
among the grains of wheat. 
Of weeds, we find at Robenhausen the carbonized capsules of a 
Silene and of the poppy (Papaver Rheas, Linn.), which still occur 
m our country. 
At Robenhausen, as previously at Meilen, much amadou (Poly- 
porus igniarius) is found, and at Parma also Dedalea quercina. Of 
the conifers three have been found—the berries of the common juniper 
(Juniperus communis, Linn.), trunks or wood of the pine (Pinus 
sylvestris, Linn., and P. montana, Duroi) and the fir (Abies excelsa, 
DC.). Of the yew (Taxus baccata, Linn.) bows were made. Of 
deciduous trees there are, besides the hazel and the beech, the witch- 
elm, the oak, the lime-tree (much bast), the holly, and the dogwood. 
Of aquatic plants, the seeds of Scirpus lacustris, Ceratophyllum 
demersum, Potamogeton, Polygonum hydropiper, Galium, Pedicularis, 
Menyanthes, Nymphea alba, Nuphar luteum, and N. pumilum are 
found in great abundance.—Biél. Univ. Oct. 1864, p. 160. 
On some Norwegian Crustacea. By M.G.O. Sars. 
M. Sars has made some curious observations on the persistence in 
the Scandinavian lakes of certain marine Entomostraca of the glacial 
epoch. Harpacticus chelifer was found in a freshwater lake in the 
neighbourhood of Christiansund. In the Mjcesen lake (the largest in 
Norway) he discovered two species of Cythere, Mysis relicta, Lov., 
and Gammarus cancelloides, Gerstfeldt ; the two latter species were 
also found by Lovén in the Swedish lakes. In ponds of the environs 
of Christiania the Amphipod Pontoporeia affinis was discovered. 
These species all inhabit the deepest parts of the water, and live quite 
separate from the true freshwater forms of Crustacea. M. Sars con- 
siders the presence of these Crustacea in the Scandinavian lakes to 
furnish evidence that at the glacial epoch the basin of the Baltic was 
in communication with either the eastern or western Arctic ocean,— 
Bibl. Univ. Sept. 20, 1864, Bull. Sct. p. 84. 
