May II, i8S8.] 



SCIENTIFIC NEVV^S. 



451 



winter has shown the different degrees of hardiness 

 among the various species of eucalyptus. He adds that 

 a considerable number, even of very young trees, were 

 absolutely insensible to the frost, while others, much 

 larger and older, have had their foliage more or less 

 damaged. Even E. globtihis, usually so hardj', has had 

 some of its leaves frozen, principally through the melting 

 of the snow by the sun's heat. Mr. Burbidge remarked 

 on the general presence of bloom or wax on the young 

 leaves, and its absence on the older — probably a 

 provision against too great transpiration in the young 

 state. Mr. Henslow offered a similar interpretation of 

 the scimitar-form of the older leaves to that of the 

 obliquity of pears and fir cones. When the stalk stands 

 at an angle with the vertical, the weight of the leaf acting 

 verticallj'' downwards, the tension being along the stalk, 

 the leaf consequently grows much more on the outer side 

 to meet the strain of the resultant of these two forces — 

 the vertical position, as of that of the stipules of acacia, 

 being probably adaptations to avoid too great radiation 

 in the dry climate of Australia. 



ROYAL SCOTTISH SOCIETY OF ARTS. 

 At the meeting held on April 23rd, Dr. F. B. Imlach, 

 President, in the chair, Mr. J. N. Inglis, C.E., read a 

 paper on " Plantations Producing Fuel and Timber for 

 Building Purposes in Bengal and Burmah." He remarked 

 that so great was the demand for wood for building pur- 

 poses in Bengal that in the last quarter of a century trees 

 seldom arrived at maturity before the axe was laid upon 

 them, and large tracts of the country in the vicinity of the 

 railway and inhabited parts were bare of trees. Trees and 

 shrubs were now planted round every village. Famine, 

 which was unknown in former years, was becoming a 

 painful reality; but if a country was sufficiently wooded, 

 it was almost certain to obtain the requisite rainfall. 

 Referring to the plantations on the banks of the canals 

 in Burmah, Mr. Inglis said that the cost of planting a 

 tree and bringing it to maturity was about iss., and that 

 it was sold by the Government, to be used for building 

 purposes, at about ^£'5. The President read two papers 

 by Mr. R. Norman Shaw, R.A., on " Patent Drains," 

 and on "A System of House Drainage by Open instead 

 of Closed Soilpipes." Mr. D. William Kemp contributed 

 a paper regarding " Improvements in Shaping Ductile 

 Metals to form Concave, Indented, or Hollow Articles, by 

 the Direct Application of Fluid Pressure." 



SOUTH LONDON ENTOMOLOGICAL AND 

 NATURAL HISTORY SOCIETY. 

 At the meeting of this Society on April 26th, the Presi- 

 dent, Mr. Billerps, exhibited a gigantic Blatta, accident- 

 ally imported alive in a case of orchids from South 

 America. 



Mr. J. W. Slater, F.E.S., read a paper on " Nature's 

 Sanitary and Anti-Sanitary Services," showing that 

 whilst certain living beings were actively engaged in 

 removing and destroying offensive matters, others are no 

 less diligent in spreading the germs of putrefaction and 

 disease. He further pointed out that the examination of 

 this subject supplies important evidence in favour of the 

 doctrine of organic evolution. 



ROYAL BOTANIC SOCIETY. 

 At a meeting of this Society held last Saturday, Mr. 

 J. P. Gassiot, Vice-President, in the chair, a large 



number of interesting donations of plants and seeds 

 was reported, including seeds of the " Flowering: 

 Fence" of the tropics, collected by Commander 

 Izat, R.N., in Loanda, Africa, and a number of Tilland- 

 sias or air plants from Brazil, presented by Mr. J. P> 

 Gassiot. 



■•-^3»^^5<f-» 



FORAMINIFERA.— in. 



(Cor.cluded f)07ii page 414. J 



THE Study of fossil forms of the Foraminifera is one of 

 great interest on account of the variation, and also of 

 the persistence, of form through succession of time that is 

 exemplified by them. It will be well to remember that 

 regarding external form, the so-called species of forami- 

 niferal shells are seen to have very doubtful claim to a 

 specific name when compared with the same distinctions 

 in other groups, these specific names being recognised as 

 such merely for convenience, the distance of variation 

 from one form to another being scarcely perceptible. 



In gatherings of the recent forms there is often a pre- 

 dominance of the Porcellaneous tj^pe of Foraminifera, such 

 as the British forms Miliolina seuiinithiin (fig. 5), M. 

 oblonga, and BilocuUna riugcns (fig. 3). Again, in con- 

 trast with this, these shells are rare or altogether absent 

 from fossil deposits. In reference to this it has recently 

 been shown that as the mineral substance of this Porcel- 

 laneous type consists of Aragonite, the unstable form of 

 carbonate of lime, most probably these forms, though 

 perhaps having existed in the periods to which these fossil 

 deposits are referable in as large a preponderance as at 

 the present day, may have been subsequently removed 

 by dissolution, leaving only those shells behind which 

 had invested themselves with the mineral form Calcite. 



As it is advisable to compare fossil forms with recent 

 ones we \\A\\ here describe the method of separating these 

 minute organisms from clays. It is requisite at the out- 

 set to dry the material thoroughly, breaking it up into 

 pieces of about an inch cube. These pieces are dropped 

 into water, and, after a short time, when the fragments 

 have disintegrated to a mud, the mass must be shaken, 

 allowed to subside, and the muddy water poured off. 

 Great care, however, should be taken to prevent any 

 escape of shells like Lagcna, which from their flask 

 shape will probably remain floating much longer 

 than other more solid forms of the same minuteness. 

 As a safeguard against the loss of some of the most 

 important forms, the mud may be decanted through the 

 finest muslin ; but generally it will be found that a suffi- 

 cient number will have settled with the finest part of the 

 residue, which, to facilitate sorting, should be sifted into 

 the various finenesses when dried. During the cleansing 

 of the residue from mud it is needful to have a minimum 

 supply of water to agitate it in, as the particles have 

 then a chance to lightlj' touch against one another, and 

 thereby aid the separation of mud from the shells. 



In working upon fossil deposits for Foraminifera one 

 may find instances which show how wonderfully these 

 minute bodies can be preserved against great local move- 

 ments. In one instance, for example, there was a clay 

 crowded with fossils both large and s.mall, wherein could 

 be traced the crushing influence that had borne down 

 upon the stratum, and the effects produced upon the 

 contained fossils noted. The Foraminifera and ostracod 

 valves, with their surface decorations of delicate spines, 

 tubercles, and corrugations, were intact, but, beginning 

 with small gasteropods, all else of a larger size had been 



