i I'lT.S. 



A great many species are found ii|x>n the weeds mod trees of Europe, 

 varying in colour, use, and form. Of these the two following are 

 among the most common : 



tKtidium canftllattim, the Pew ,-Eeidium. This plant i often very 

 common in the Utter month* of autumn on the back of the leave* 

 of the cultivated pear-tree, to which it gives a singularly warted aspect 

 It makes it* appearance, crowded in little patchei of a pale bn.wi 

 colour, which, when examined with a microscope, are neon to consist 

 of numerous oval bodies, about a line long, rather the broadest toward* 

 the upper end. These bodies are, when young, slightly furrowed, t.ut 

 at a more advanced period they divide into tough parallel fibres, w hi, h 

 open at the sides, but do not separate at the apex. Through the 

 thus formed between the fibres fall the sporules, or seed-like 



To inaccurate observers this species would appear an aggregation ol 

 the nests of some minute insect, for which we know it to be often 

 mistaken. It probably does not produce any injurious effect upon the 

 plants it attacks, for it generally makes its appearance late in the 

 season, when the leaves have nearly completed their office for the year. 



^Srirfium firrbrrirlit, the Barberry Blight The bright orange powder 

 that collect* upon the leaves and flowers of the common Barberry con- 

 sists of the sporules of thin species, which are discharged from thou- 

 sands of little tubular apertures, that spread in patches over all the 

 tender parts. These apertures are the open ends "f the |>eridia in a 

 state of maturity, and are bordered at first by a ragged toothed mem- 

 brane, which finally falls away. There is a popular notion that Barberry 

 bushes blight corn. The rust of corn is a species of Puccinia [PuooonAj, 

 and it is not improbable that the spores of tEcidiiim from the Barberry 

 may produce Pitccinin on the corn. 



( Henslow's Journal of the Royal Agricultural Society, 1841.) 



.*< J.V'URUS, a wild species of Ibex, called Pascng by the Persians. 



[QOAT.1 



^EOOPODIUM (from 4i& a goat, and vot&y, a little foot), a genus 

 of plants belonging to the order L'mbellifera. One species, &. poda- 

 yraria, is common throughout the whole of Europe, and grows 

 abundantly in Ureat Britain. It has a stem one or two feet high, with 

 furrows. The leaves are two or three times teruate ; the leaflet* unequal 

 at the base and acutely serrate. It has a creeping root, and grows in 

 damp places. Although well known, and having the names of Goat- 

 Weed, Ash- Weed, Herb Gerard, and Wild Masterwort , it seems to possess 

 no medicinal properties. Linnteus says that it is boiled when young, 

 and eaten as greens in Sweden. 



AK'I.ODOX, the generic title applied by H. von'Meyer to the fossil 

 crocodile or gavial of Monheim. 



AEKoI.ITKS, called also Meteoric Slonet, are bodies which have 

 fallen on the earth from the atmosphere, and are named from a^p, 

 atmosphere, and kttos, a stone. We possess historical records 

 from very remote antiquity, and numerous writers in all ages have 

 mentioned instances of the remarkable phenomenon of stony bodies 

 having been seen to fall from the sky ; yet, till within the last fifty 

 years, all such accounts were treated as tales of the ignorant and super- 

 stitious. The first man of science who directed attention to the subject 

 of aerolites was C'hladui, a German philosopher, win., in a tract publish. <! 

 at Riga and Leipzig, in IT'.'l. ii|...n tin: mass of native iron found by 

 Pallas in Siberia, maintained the credibility of the traditions of that 

 and other stony bodies having fallen from the air. His sagacious 

 inductions, although they failed at the time to make any great impres- 

 sion, prepared philosophers for a more willing reception of the evidence 

 as to two instances of the same extraordinary event, which were shortly 

 afterwards brought under their notice. In 1796 a stone was exhibited 

 in London, weighing 66 pounds, which fell at Wold Cottage, in York- 

 shire, in December of the preceding year ; but, although the fact was 

 attested by several credible witnesses, the possibility of such an occur- 

 renee was still doubted. It was remarked, however, by Sir Joseph 

 Banks, that there was a great resemblance between the Yorkshire stone 

 and one in his possession, sent to him from Italy, with an account of 

 its having fallen from the clouds, along \\ith many others of a similar 

 nature, near Sienna, in July, 1794. In the year 1 799 Sir Joseph Banks 

 received a circumstantial account, accompanied by specimens, of a fall 

 of stones from the atmosphere, which was said to have taken place 

 near Benares, in Hindustan, in the preceding December ; and as 

 these specimens were also nearly identical with the Yorkshire stone, 

 incredulity began to give way. It was not. however, till the appear- 

 ance of the celebrated paper of Howard, in tin' ' Philosophical Trans- 

 actions' for 1802, giving an account of his analysis of the Benares 

 tone, that men of science declared their belief in the phenomenon, 

 supported, as the evidence then was, by the researches anil opinion of 

 o cautious and accurate an inquirer ; and a fall of stones at L'Aiglc, 

 in Normandy, which took place in the following year, at the time the 

 memoir of Howard was- in the hands of the public, i. ni<,\, d .-til ,|..ul.t. 

 The Institute of France deputed the celebrated Hint to examine, .MI 

 the spot, the whole circumstances attending this remarkable 

 and the result of his labours will In- found in his report, in the * 

 volume of the ' Mcmoires de 1'Inxtitut' He satisfied himself of the 

 authenticity of the facts which had been narrat.-.! ; ami th.- specimens 

 he collected on the ground. l-inir analysed by Vauquelin and 'I I 

 yielded the same result as the analysis of the Benares stone by Howard. 



An account ol the circumstances that attended the fall of stones at 



Benares and at L'Aigle will convey the best idea ,.f the phenomenon, 

 o two cases, but in m -tances 



of which a circumstantial description has been preserved. They are 

 always accompanied by a meteor, which at night apiars like a burning 

 fiery ball, surrounded by a brilliant va|>our, and with a tail like a . 



in the day, on account of the strong light of the sun, and the ,- ke 



and \..p..iir evolved, the meteor looks more like a small cloud of ditle 

 rent colours, and of a singular form, which, after a powerful cxp 

 seems to burst and scatter its cont. 



At a short distance from Benares, on the 19th of December, 1798, a 

 very luminous meteor was observed in the heavens, about eight o'clock 

 in the evening, in the form of a large ball of fire ; it was accompanied 

 by a lou. I noise, nwembling that of thunder, which was immediately 

 followed by the sound of the fall of heavy bodies. On examining the 

 ground, it was observed to have been newly torn up in many places, 

 and in these stones were found of a peculiar appearance, most of which 

 had buried themselves to the depth of six inches. At the time the 

 meteor appeared the sky was i ,.,t t he smallest vestige 



of a cloud had been seen since the llth of "the m,. nth, nor were any 

 observed for many days after. It was seen in the western part 

 hemisphere, and was only a short time visible. The light from it was 

 so great as to cast strong shadows from the bars of a window upon a 

 dark carpet, and it appeared as luminous as the brightest moonlight. 

 Many of the stones were collected, and some of them weight- I 

 pounds each. 



On the 26th of April, 1803, at one o'clock in the afternoon, the sky 

 being clear, with the exception of a few light clouds, n ball of fire was 

 observed in Normandy, in many places far distant from each other 

 namely, Caen, Falaise, Alencon, Yemeni!, anil 1'ont Audemer which 

 moved rapidly from south-east to north-west; and about the same 

 time, in the district of L'Aigle, loud explosions wen' heard, which lasted 

 from five to six minutes, resembling the sound of ctnnon and musketry, 

 and were followed by a long-continued noise, like that of many drums. 

 The meteor from which the noise proceeded appeared - h like 



a ball of fire, but rather like a small rectangular cloud, w hieh. during 

 the phenomenon, seemed not to move; but the vapour of which it 

 consisted was sent out, after each explosion, in all directions. It seemed 

 to be about half a league north-west fr, 'in L'Aigle, and must have been 

 at a very considerable elevation, as it appeared to the inl 

 two villages, more than a league distant from each other, to lie imme- 

 diately over their heads at the same instant Throughout the whole 

 district over which the cloud hung there was heard a hissing noise, 

 like that of a stone from a sling, and a vast number of stones t 

 the ground. The space on which they fell formed an ellipse of two 

 leagues and a half long by one broad, the larger diameter being fr. .m 

 south-east to north-west, the dinvtioii in which the meteor moved: 

 the largest stones were found at the south-east end of th, ellipse, and 

 the smallest at the opposite extremity. Above 20("> were collected, 

 and they varied in weight from 2 drachms to IT pounds and a half. 



Aerolites, when token up soon after their fall, ore extremely hot 

 They ore generally angular, of prismatic and pyramidal forms, the 

 angles being rounded ; their broken irregular surface is coated with a 

 lack crust. like varnish, seldom exceeding a quarter of a line in 

 thickness. When broken, they diner a little in appearance ; bnt 

 ore, for the most port, composed of a collection of small spherical 

 xxlies, of a grey colour, imbedded in a gritty substance, and often 

 interspersed with yellow spots. One of the most remarkable circum- 

 stances is the great similarity of composition u f all th tones, 

 on whatever part of the earth they have fallen. Iron is found in all, 

 and in ft considerable proportion, partly in a malleable state, partly in 

 that of an oxide, and always in combination with a greater or less 

 >roportion of the rare metal called nickel. The earths silica and 

 nagnesia and sulphur constitute the other chief ingredient* ; but 

 :he earths alumina and lime, the metals manganese, chrome, and 

 cobalt, together with carbon, soda, and water, have also been found 

 n minute and variable quantities, but not in the same -prriuieus. 



The Var -vered by analysis are never, however, sufficient to 



destroy that affinity of external character by which they arc instantly 

 recognised. No new substance, nothing with w hieh we are not already 

 acquainted, has ever been discovered in th. turn. l'.m. 



h all the constituent elements are found in different n 

 substances, no combination of them, similar to that in meteoric -i 

 has ever been met with, either among the stratified rocks of any period 

 of formation, or am., ng th, im-t;:ititiod rocks, or among the pr 

 of any volcano, extinct or in activity. Their specific gravity is alxmt 

 S'50, but varies according to the proportion of iron which they contain. 

 They are sometimes very friable, sometimes very hard ; and s .me that 

 are friable when they first foil, become halt! afterwards. In size they 



.111 2 drachms weight to 300 pounds. One of the stones which 

 fell at L'Aigle yielded by the analysis of Thenard, 



Silica 46 per cent 



Magnesia 10 



Iron 45 



:,d 2 .. 



Sulphur 6 



and Laugier afterward- Ml of ehn.inc in it. 



Frequently small detached portions of malleable iron are disseminated 



