July 2, 1874] 



NA TURE 



177 



shown to belong to the Midille Purbecks, a part of the series 

 not now existing in Portland. A similar bed, but much thicker, 

 was then described at Chesilton, in the north of the island. It 

 is tliere 60 ft. thick, and contains large blocks of Portland stone 

 and Portland chert, the greater number of which are in the upper 

 part of the deposit, which is here on the sea-level, and 400 ft. 

 lower than the Portland escarpment which rises above it. This 

 Ijam and angular debris the author was disposed to attribute to 

 a temporary submergence of the land to a depth exceeding the 

 height of Portland, and by which the land as it emerged was 

 swept, and its Jibris carried down to the lowest levels, with the 

 remains of its land-animals and land and fresh-water shells, 

 wliich latter, where protected by large masses of loam and sud- 

 denly entombed, have been preserved uninjured. To this de- 

 posit, which is common over the raised beaches on the south 

 coast, the author proposed to apply tlie term "land-wash." The 

 paper concluded with a short notice of the drift-beds formed 

 subsequently to the denudation of the Weymouth district, 

 and therefore never on the high-level Portland drift. — 

 On the character of the diamantiferous rock of South Africa, 

 by Prof. N. Story Maskelyne, F.R.S., Keeper, and Dr. 

 Flight, Assistant, of the Mineralogical Department, British 

 Museum. In this paper the authors confirmed certain state- 

 ments made by one of them from a superficial examination 

 of specimens brought to this country by Mr. Dunn. The speci- 

 mens examined and analysed by Dr. Flight were obtained from 

 various diggings and from different deptlis, down to iSoft. in 

 the case of one mass from Culesberg Kopje. Their characters 

 throughout are essentially the same. The rock consists of a soft 

 and somewhat pulverulent ground-mass, composed of a mineral 

 (soapy to the touch) of a light yellowish colour in the upper, and 

 of an olive-green to bluish-grey colour in the lower parts of the 

 excavations. Interspersed in the mass are fragments of more or 

 less altered shale, and a micaceous-looking mineral of the vermi- 

 culitc group, which sometimes becomes an important constituent 

 of the rod;, which also contains bright green crystals of a ferru- 

 ginous enslatite (bronzite), and sometimes a horn-blendic mineral 

 closely resembling smaragdite. A pale but'f bronzite occurs in 

 larger fragments than the green form of the mineral ; and in the 

 rock of Du Toil's pan an altered diallage is present. Opaline 

 silica, in the form of hyalite or of hornstone, is disseminated 

 through the greater part of the rock-masses, and they are every- 

 where penetrated by calcite. The analyses of the component 

 minerals (given in detail in the paper) show that this once igneous 

 rock is a bronzite rock converted into a hydrated magnesium 

 silicate, having the chemical characters of a hydrated bronzite, 

 except where the remains of crystals have resisted metamorphism. 

 Except in the absence of olivine and the small amount of augitic 

 mineral, it might be compared with the well-known Lherzolic 

 rock. The diamonds are said to occur most plentifidly, or 

 almost exclusively, in the neighbourhood of dykes of diorite 

 which intersect the hydrated rock, or occur between it and the 

 horizontal strata through which the igneous rocks have been pro- 

 jected. The authors compare the characters of the diamonds 

 found in different positions, and come to the conclusion that their 

 source is not very remote from that in which they are now found. 

 The mineral above-mentioned as resembling vermiculite is de- 

 scribed by the authors as a new species under the name of 

 Vaalite. — Note on a modified form of Dinosaurian ilium, hitherto 

 reputed scapula, indicative of a new genus, or possibly of a new 

 order of reptiles, by J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. The author re-ex- 

 amines Mantel's " Scapula of an unknown reptile" = Owen's 

 " Scapula of Megalosaurus ? " and adduces reasons for consider- 

 ing it to be a modified Dinosaurian ilium. He describes two 

 new examples of the bone in Dr. Wilkins's collection, contrasts 

 them with undoubted scapula; of sundry Dinosaurs and existing 

 reptiles, and proves their essential correspondence with the ilia 

 of known Dinosaurs. — Note on a reptilian tibia and humerus 

 (probably of Jlybuosaiinis) from the Wealden formation in the 

 Isle of Wight, by J. W. Hulke, F.R.S. In this communication 

 the author describes two saurian limb-bones, remarkable for the 

 great expansion of their articular ends, and the shortness and 

 smalhiess of their shaft. The features of the tibia are more like 

 those of the tibia of Hyhcosaunts than of any other Dinosaur. 

 This resemblance, and the suitability of the humerus to the very 

 massive articular end of the Hylx-osaurian scapula, dispose the 

 author to refer the bones to this saurian. 



Royal Horticultural Society, June 17. — Scientific Commit- 

 tee.— Dr. J. D. Hooker, CU., I'.R.S., in the chair. — Specimens 

 of Piicciitia iiuilvctcmniin (the hollyhock disease) were exhibited 



from Mr. Fish.— Dr. Masters showed a large slab of the wood of 

 the Encine [Qucrcus /ium///s).— Mr. Worthington Smith exhi- 

 bited a woodcut block of ebony which he pronounced nearly as 

 good as box, but objectionable on account of its dark colour.— 

 Dr. Denny showed flowers of a scarlet Pelargonium raised by 

 him, in which the petals were remarkably persistent. He had 

 obtained this horliculturally desirable quality by continuous 

 breeding and selection from a variety originally manifesting it in 

 a smaller degree. 



General Meeting. — W. A. Lindsay, secretary, in the chair. — 

 Prof. Thiselton Dyer commented on the interesting series of 

 lilies exhibited by Mr. Barr, which illustrated four distinct geo- 

 graphical races all belonging in a wide sense to the same species. 

 Liliinn biilbi/c-niin. L. buibifunim proper was wild in Austria 

 and Sweden ; L. ciocemn in France, Switzerland, and North 

 Italy ; L. davnriciuu in Siberia, L. ihunbergianum in Japan. 

 It could not be doubted that these were all derived from a 

 common parentage, and had been gradually differentiated as they 

 migrated in different directions and became isolated. — He also 

 described the coffee blight of Ceylon and South India (Hemikia 

 vastatrix). A dried bush exhibiting the effects of the disease 

 was shown on the table. — Dr. Hooker illustrated in some detail 

 the light which the theory of a common parentage threw on the 

 geographical distribution of closely allied species, varieties, or 

 forms. He pointed out as particularly striking cases the cedars 

 and the 5-leaved pines. As to the llemiiiia it could not be 

 doubted that it was a most serious enemy for the planters to 

 contend with. He thought, however, that there was some hope 

 that particular kinds of coffee might be found to be less liable to 

 its attacks than others, and at Kew he had been making great 

 efforts to procure and raise from seed the remarkably large- 

 seeded West African kind with a view to its transmission to 

 Ceylon. 



Anthropological Institute, June 23. — Prof. Busk, F.R.S. , 

 president, in the chair. — Mr. Robert Dunn read a paper On 

 ethnic psychology. The author dwelt on the importance of 

 carefully studying the cerebral organisation of the typical races 

 as the only way of elucidating the psychological differences which 

 exist among them. Notwithstanding the labours of Gratiolet 

 in that field of inquiry, a vast deal remained to be done. The 

 author's convictions rested on the postulate that the brain is the 

 instrument of the mind, and the consequent corollary was that 

 the distinguishing psychical differences existing between various 

 peoples depend greatly, if not altogether, on the structural differ- 

 ences of tlieir brains. — A paper, by Mr. Kooke Penningion, was 

 read. On t'ne relative ages of cremation and contracted burial in 

 Derbyshire in the Neolithic and Bronze ages. The object of the 

 paper was to show that the impression that stone implements and 

 contracted burial, bronze implements and ctemation, are usually 

 associated is quite erroneous as tested by the lesults of barrow- 

 opening in the Peak of Derbyshire. The researches of Messrs. 

 Bateman and Carrington on being tabulated proved that. Of 

 " finds " containing stone implements, 65 per cent, weie cases of 

 contracted burial, 34 per cent, were burnt. In the Bronze, 5S 

 per cent, were contracted, 3S per cent, were burnt. It was clear 

 that those who deposited stone implements in the graves of the 

 dead, and those who placed there articles of bronze, shared 

 pretty equally the differences of custom in the interment 

 of the body : so that out of 150 contracted entombments, 

 50 per cent, were accompanied by stone only, 12 per cent, 

 by bronze'; and out of 86 burnt cases, 46 per cent, afforded 

 stone only, 14 per cent, bronze. The conclusion was fully borne 

 out by examination of the contents of each tumulus. Several 

 instances were given as showing that the Neolithic and Bronze 

 peoples alike used both modes of burial. — A paper, by Miss A. 

 W. Buckland, was read. On mythological birds ethnologically 

 considered. The chief object of the author was to prove that 

 in tracing the bird-legends 10 their sources, valuable ethno- 

 logical results might be obtained, and a clue afforded to the 

 migrations of man in Prehistoric times. — The president took the 

 opportunity on this, the last ordinary meeting of the session, of 

 announcing that the appeal of Council to the body of members 

 at the anniversary had been so successlul that the Institute was 

 now out of debt. 



Geologists' Association, June 5. — Henry Woodward, 

 F.R.S., president, in the chair. — On the lower cretaceous beds 

 of Folkestone, by F. G. H. Price, F.G.S. The town of Folke- 

 stone is situated upon the Folkestone Beds of the Upper Neo- 

 comian. These the author divides into four lithological groups, 

 commencing with a sandy bed, which contains many phosphatic 



