408 PHILOSOPHICAL TRANSACTIONS. [aNNO 1740. 



we had as good authority to suppose it 60,000 years old, as we have 6000, it 

 would be worth the while to trace the origin and source of these petrifying ex- 

 halations a little deeper than seems to have been done by Dr. Woodward; and 

 might either perfect his history, or produce a more rational system of the earth, 

 than has yet appeared. 



You will find, among the things now sent, some land-coral found in a lime- 

 pit, where is a great quantity of it, between two strata of lime-stone, of at 

 least 3 feet thick. Also some few pieces of pseudo-sapphirus, and other kinds 

 of spar ; such as were picked out of the fissures of the rocks, above-described. 

 There is a vast variety of these things in the peak, much greater than has been 

 noticed by any one. 



Concerning the Smut of Corn. By the Jbbe Pluche* N° 456, p. 357. 



The Abbe having passed some months in the country, where he had the satis- 

 faction to read in the great book, nature, which far exceeds all our libraries; 

 he made several observations, among which are the following: 



1 . Having with the assistance of the microscope viewed the smut of corn, 

 he observed the stalks were all spotted and pricked with small burnings: now as 

 the smut happens after a fine rain, followed by a bright sun-shine, the cause of 

 this evil is, that the focus of those very small drops is just near them, and on 

 the stalks that supports them ; therefore the sun's rays, collected in this point, 

 must there burn ; which dries up the stalk, and prevents the ear from graining. 



The second remark is on the corn that grows up into ears, the grains of 

 which are for the most part full of meal quite black. With the microscope he 

 saw, all round or above these black grains, small long bodies, rolled up, and 

 having each a pedicle; which he found to be the flowers, that could not reach 

 their due form, or come forth and ripen ; so that the grain, being deprived of 

 this help, could not develope its germ, but produced only a black meal, for 

 want of the unfolding of certain vessels. 



The third remark is, the reason that invites thrushes or starlings under the 

 legs of black cattle grazing in a pasture. Not being able to get near them, he 

 observed them at a distance with a good glass. He saw all these birds thrust 

 their head and half their body down into the grass, in such manner that their 

 tails remained erect in the air, as that of a duck when diving; which made him 

 think, that those birds seek after worms in the earth; and that they gather 

 about the cattle, because as they are large animals, by trampling on the ground, 

 they oblige such worms to come forth, as happen to be pressed under the 

 weight of their hoofs. 



* Author of the Spectacle de la Nature, and some other popular works. He died in 176I, aged 73. 



