833 



FISTULARIA. 



FLINTY-SLATE. 



Mediterranean seas, fossil in the Crag at Bordeaux and Dax, and at 

 Paris (Pliocene, Miocene, and Eocene periods of Lyell). De la Beche 

 enumerates two in the Blue Maria of the south of France, namely, one 

 closely approaching E. Jisiura of Lamarck and E. reticulata of Sowerby. 

 In the Cretaceous group he gives two, E. Sanctce Catherine and 

 E. pelayica, both from Rouen. In the Oolitic group he records one 

 species, E. scalarii, Sowerby, from the great oolite at Ancliff, Wilts. 

 Deshayes, in his edition of Lamarck (1836), enumerates 11 living 

 species, and 5 found only in the fossil state, namely E. coslata and 

 E. clypeata, Lamarck, from Grignon; E. radiola, Lamarck, from 

 Fames ; and E. elegant and E. clathrata, Deshayes, the first from Paris 

 and Valognes, and the other, a rare species, from Parnes. 



Deshayes, in his Tables, gives 2 living and 2 fossil species of 

 Parmopkorut (tertiary), one from Touraine (Miocene period of Lyell) ; 

 and he enumerates 2 from the Crag, 3 from Touraine, 3 from Angers, 

 5 from Paris, and 2 from Valognes. In his edition of Lamarck he 

 notes 2 species only as fossil, one, P. elongates, Lamarck, with a variety, 

 from Grignon, and the other, P. anguetus, Deshayes, from Paris. 



Woodward in his ' Manual of the Mollusca," gives the following 

 numbers of the fossil species of Finurdlidts : 



Fiaurelta, 25 species. Great Britain and France. 



Pnncturella, 2 species. In the Glacial Formations of North Britain. 



Emarginula, 40 species. Triassic, Britain and France. 



Parmophorus, 3 species. Paris Basin. 



FISTULA'RIA, a genus of Acanthopterygious Fishes, remarkable 

 for the extreme elongation of the anterior part of the head, forming 

 a tube, at the extremity of which is the mouth. The Pistularia taba- 

 caria of the Antilles is the type. It lives on little fishes and Crustacea, 

 which it draws out from the interstices of stones and holes in rocks 

 by means of its long trunk or beak. Two other species are known, the 

 f. terrata and the P. immamlata. They are all small fishes, not 

 reaching two feet in length, slender, and eel-shaped. 



FLABELLA'RIA, a genus of Fossil Plants. P. borassifolia is 

 found in the Coal Formation. (Steinberg.) 



FLACOURTIA, the type of the order Placourliacea, was named in 

 honour of Etienne de Flacourt, a director of the French East India 

 Company, and the commander of an expedition to Madagascar in 1648, 

 of which he gave an account. This genus is dioecious ; the staminiferous 

 flowers have their stamens densely crowded, a hemispherical receptacle, 

 and are glandless at the base ; the pistilliferous flowers have the 

 calyx 4-5-cleft, deciduous ; the stigmas 4-9, each furnished with a 

 longitudinal furrow above ; the seeds long. The species are thorny 

 shrubs, with whitish sepals and yellow stamens. 



F. Ramrmtchi has roundish ovate acute crenated leaves. This shrub 

 attains a height of 8 feet, and is a native of the island of Madagascar, 

 where it is called Ramontchi. The fruit, which is edible, is about the 

 size of a small plumb, is red when ripe, at length becoming violet- 

 coloured. It has a sweet and acid taste. There is a small island off 

 the coast of Madagascar which is covered with these trees. This 

 island is called by English sailors Plum-Tree Island ; by the French, 

 Isle aux Prunes. 



P. laj/ida has elliptical leaves, serrated, bluntUh at both extremities. 

 It is a native of the mountainous districts of the East Indies. The 

 fruit is about the size of a common currant, and of a red colour. 

 The fruit is eaten by the natives, and the tree is called by the TeUngese 

 Pedda Caurew. 



P. inermit has elliptical crenato-serrated leaves, with short axillary 

 racemes of hermaphrodite flowers. It is an unarmed tree, attaining 

 a height of 30 feet. It has reddish-purple berries of a pleasant acid 

 taste. It is a native of the Moluccas, where it is also extensively 

 cultivated for the sake of its fruit. There are several other species 

 of Ftacourtia, all of them yielding edible fruits. The young shoots 

 and leaves of P. cataphracta, which have the taste but not the bitter- 

 ness of rhubarb, are considered astringent and stomachic, and are 

 prescribed in the Circars accordingly. The infusion of P. sepiaria is 

 thought to be useful as a remedy for the bites of snakes. 



FLACOURTIA'CE^;, or FLACOURTIA'NE^E, Bixads, a natural 

 order of Plants belonging to Lindley's parietose group of Polypetalous 

 Kxogens. It has from 4-7 definite sepals cohering slightly at the base ; 

 the petals equal in number with the sepals, and alternate with them, 

 sometimes wanting ; the stamens hypogynous, equalling the petals, or 

 twice as many or some multiple of them, and sometimes appearing 

 as scales forming a nectary ; the ovary roundish, distinct, sessile, or 

 slightly stalked ; the style absent or filiform ; the stigmas equal in 

 number to the valves of the ovary, more or less distinct from each 

 other ; the fruit 1 -celled, sometimes iudehiscent and fleshy, some- 

 times capsular, 4-fl-valved, filled with a fine pulp inside ; the seeds few, 

 thick, usually enveloped in a pellicle formed by the withered pulp, 

 the albumen fleshy, somewhat oily, the embryo straight in the axis, 

 with the radicle turned to the hiluni, and therefore usually superior; 

 the cotyledons flat, foliaceous. This order consists of shrubs and 

 small trees, with alternate simple coriaceous leaves on short stalks, 

 and axillary many-flowered peduncles. 



The affinities of this order are with Samydacere, Laciitemacca, 

 Panyiacea, and Titiawe. They may bo distinguished from all other 

 plants by their nnilocular fruit having their inside wholly covered 

 with the placentae. About 31 genera and 85 species are referred to 

 this order. 



BAT. HIST. DIY. VOL. H. 



These plants are uatives of the hottest parts of the East and West 

 Indies and Africa. Three of the genera Flacourtia, Hydnocarpus, 

 and Chaulmoogra yield plants used by man ; few, if any, are cultivated 

 for ornament. 



llydnocarpw (from vtivov, a tuber, and Metros-, a fruit) has dioecious 

 flowers, the staminiferous ones with 5 stamens, 5 sepals, the two outer 

 ones being ovate, 5 petals with villous margins furnished with a scale 

 on the inside ; the berry is spherical, terminated by four reflexed 

 tubercles. There is only one species of this genus, which is a tree 

 about 30 feet in height, the If. renenata of Gsertner, and H. inebrians 

 of Vahl. It is a native of Ceylon. The fruit when eaten produces 

 sickness, giddiness, and a dangerous form of intoxication. It is 

 greedily devoured by fishes, which become stupified, but when taken 

 in this way they produce poisonous effects as food. 



Chaulmoogra (Gynocardia) is a dioecious genus ; the staminiferous 

 flowers with a 4-5-lobed calyx, 5 petals with a scale at the base of 

 each ; the pistilliferous the same, except the stamens, the ovary supe- 

 rior, 1-celled, with numerous ovules, and 5 parietal placentse, 5 styles ; 

 the fruit succulent, dry, 1-celled, many-seeded. 



O. odorata has short-stalked, alternate, bifarious, drooping, lanceo- 

 late, entire, acuminate, smooth, exstipulate leaves, 6 to 10 inches long, 

 14 to 24 inches broad. It is a native of Silhet. The seeds are 

 employed extensively by the natives of India as a remedy for 

 cutaneous diseases. In those cases they are applied externally ; the 

 testa being removed from the seed, the perisperm is beaten up with 

 clarified butter into a soft mass, and applied to the part affected three 

 times a day. The Indian names of this plant are Chaulmoogra and 

 Petarkura. [PANGIAC&&] 



Other genera belonging to this order are Ryaiuca, named by 

 Vahl after John Ryan, who collected plants in Guyana; Patrina, 

 named after M. Patris, who collected plants in Guyana ; Soamea, after 

 Philippe Rose Roume de St. Laurent, an agent of the French govern- 

 ment at St. Domingo, who was of great service to Poiteau, who 

 travelled there ; Kiyydaria, after Francis Kiggelar, a Dutch botanist 

 of the 17th century ; Stiymarota, Mdicytw, Erythrospermum, Panyium, 

 and Vareca. 



(Don, Dichlamydeout Plants ; Lindley,' Natural System ; Lindley, 

 Flora Hedica ; Burnett, Outlines of Botany.) 



FLAG. [IBIS.] 



FLAGSTONE. A variety of Sandstone in which the laminated 

 structure prevails is thus termed. Other laminated or thin-bodied 

 rocks, as certain limestones and some argillaceous beds of the Silurian 

 series, receive the same title. The laminations of flagstone arise 

 from peculiarity of deposition ; the laminations of slate (properly so 

 called) arise from a new structure superadded to that of deposition, 

 and possessing a certain symmetry and relations to lines and axes, 

 which are at least analogous to crystalline arrangements, 



FLAMINGO. [DUCKS.] 



FLAX. [LINUM.] 



FLEA. [PuLEX.] 



FLEABANE. [CONYZA.] 



FLEXUOSI. [AMMONITES.] 



FLINDERSIA. [CEDBELACEA] 



FLINT, a mineral substance composed principally of Silica. 

 [SILICA.] It is found mostly in the Chalk Formation. The true 

 origin of this mineral substance as it occurs in the Chalk of Europe 

 especially has been, and still is, the subject of much discussion 

 among microscopists and geologists. Mr. Bowerbank believes gene- 

 rally in the origin of flints (and some allied minerals) from sponges. 

 In confirmation of this view spicula, such as characterise the Siliceous 

 Sponges (Ilalispongia), are found in flint, and on the surfaces of flints 

 peculiar marks of organisation referrible to spongeous texture. 

 Ehreuberg, finding in some flints abundance of Infusorial Ammalcula,, 

 suggests the origin of flint from aggregations of these siliceous-shielded 

 Microzoaria. Mr. Charlesworth has recently found flint occupying the 

 closed pulp cavity of a tooth of Mososaurut, and regards this fact as 

 opposed to both speculations. 



There can be little doubt that, whatever substances are found in the 

 flint, or it may be found in connection with, it has been depo- 

 sited from solution in water. Not only is flint found in connection 

 with sponges and Infusoria, but also with Echinodennata and other 

 animal remains of the Chalk. The substance called Chert has the 

 general characters of Flint, and frequently contains in its interior loose 

 particles of sand. [AGATE.] From this circumstance there can be little 

 doubt that the chert has been formed from the deposit of silica upon 

 rolled masses of sand. In the same manner it appears probable the 

 siliceous matter has been deposited in the cavities left by sponges and 

 other animals after they had been covered up by the chalk at the 

 bottom of the ocean. It has been supposed, in the case of sponges, 

 that this process goes oni at the bottom of the sea, but this is highly 

 improbable, and it is much more likely that the flint is formed by a 

 process of percolation long after the animal remains with which it is 

 found in contact have been buried up by the chalk. That silex is 

 readily made to assume this form is seen in the cases of silicified wood, 

 in its deposit in vegetable structures, in its existence around the 

 locality of geysers, and in the very ready manner in which it is precipi- 

 tated in an insoluble form from its solutions. 



FLINTY-SLATE, or SILICEOUS SCHISTUS, is a substance 



3 a 



