SUMMARY OP THE CONTENTS OF VOL. II. 331 



Besides much carbonate of lime and magnesia, Madrepores and 

 Astreeas also contain some fluoric and phosphoric acids . 75, 76 



Oscillatory state of the bottom of the sea according to Darwin 7679 



Traditions of Samothrace. Irruptions of the sea. Mediterranean. 

 Sluice theory of Strato. Myth of Lyktonia, and the "Atlantis 

 broken into fragments" 7883 



On the causes which prevent the sinking down of clouds and precipi- 

 tation taking place from them 83 84 



Heat disengaged from the crust of the earth while solidifying. Hot 

 currents of air which in the early ages of the earth, from frequent 

 corrugations of the strata and elevations of land, may have been 

 diffused in the atmosphere from temporary fissures . . 84,85 



Colossal size and great age of some kinds of trees ; Dragon tree 

 of Orotava thirteen, and Adansonia digitata (Baobab) thirty-two 

 English feet in diameter. Characters cut in the bark of the trees in 



. the 15th century. Adanson assigns to some of the Baobab trunks 

 in Senegambia an age of between 5100 and 6000 years . 86-92 



Judging by the annular rings, there are yew-trees (Taxus baccata) 

 from 2600 to 3000 years old. Is it true that in the northern 

 temperate zone the part of the tree turned towards the north has 

 narrower annular rings, as Michel Montaigne affirmed in 1581 ? 

 Species of trees in which individuals attain a size of above twenty- 

 one or twenty-two English feet diameter, and an age of several 

 centuries, belong to the most different natural families . 9294 



Diameter of the Mexican Schubertia disticha of Santa Maria del Tule 

 40| English feet; the sacred Banyan fig-tree of Ceylon almost 30; 

 and the oak at Saintes (Dep. de la Charente Infe'rieure) 29^ English 

 feet. The age of the oak tree estimated from its annular rings at 



