158 Miscellaneous. 



1st. What I considered as vessels were said to be mere marks of 

 sliding of the coal. Prof. Bailey prepared a specimen of this by his 

 method, and told me that if I found vessels there, my proposition was 

 correct. Examined by Agassiz and myself, with his large Oberhauser, 

 it turns out to be nothing but a mass of perforated vessels, as clear 

 and distinct as if they were recent. M. Agassiz observed, " One 

 moment suffices to remove every doubt on the subject." 



2nd. What I considered as fossil seeds were said to be mere pea- 

 cock-eye coal ; the dark carbonaceous centres of these seeds, which 

 I held to be carbonized cellular matter, was thought to be a mere 

 mistake and the seeds imaginary. I have since discovered them 

 with distinct and clear apparently spinous appendages. M. Agassiz 

 thinks the seed a Samara, and I have found sufficient quantity to 

 pick out the carbonaceous matter from the interior with a fine needle 

 — decarbonize it in a clean platina crucible over a spirit-lamp, with 

 every possible precaution to prevent any foreign substance mixing 

 therewith. On examining this with the Oberhauser, 700 diameters, 

 M. Agassiz showed to Dr. Gould and myself the cells as clear and 

 plain as possible ; it is a mass of cellular matter, as I stated. You 

 may of course imagine the extreme tenuity of the parietes of cells 

 of seeds when decarbonized, and the difficulty of those less experi- 

 enced than M. Agassiz in the microscope in managing the subject — 

 he feels quite convinced of their being fossil seeds. The nature of the 

 genus of plants must require further examination. 



3rd. The smooth glossy surfaces, which I considered the external 

 parts of large plants rendered smooth by intense pressure, were said 

 to be nothing more than slickensides. My position here is proved 

 much more easily than in the other cases, by specimens passing gra- 

 dually from the smoother through different degrees of protuberance 

 (all still smooth and polished), until we arrive at the full form of the 

 Lepidodendron. Nay more, I have found the parallel lines (channels) 

 which are on the slickensides, also on the perfectly-formed Lepido- 

 dendra. The correctness of my views here I could prove to the 

 most sceptical. 



The discoveries still to be made on this subject are numerous and 

 important ; and I doubt not that the investigation of the coal itself 

 will soon solve the doubts hitherto existing in the comparison of the 

 coal fossils with recent plants. 



I will merely add, that I have found quite distinctly the impression 

 of the cellular cuticle of some of these plants, which of course can- 

 not be seen in an impression on shale, the grains of the sedimentary 

 matter being as large as the surface of the cells ; but on the pasty 

 mass of coal the impression is perfect. — Silliman's Journal, November 

 1847. 



A Fact respecting the Habits of Notonecta glauca. 

 By Prof. Forrest Shepherd. 



In the evening twilight of a pleasant day in September 1846, Sir 

 George Simpson encamped for the night, on his route from Red 

 River to the head waters of the Mississippi, in the vicinity of lati- 

 tude 48° north and longitude 95° or 96° west from Greenwich. 



