198 Queries and Answers. 



Marine Vegetables as Articles of Food. (Vol. II. p. 106.) — Mr. Charles 

 Greaves having called upon botanists to direct their attention to marine vege- 

 tables as articles of food, it may be advantageous to point out the amount of 

 our present knowledge upon this subject. The kinds as yet generally known to 

 be resorted to as articles of diet are but few, viz. f7''lva umbilicata, jFlicus cscu- 

 lentus, edulis, and saccharinus, and a species found on the coast of some of 

 the islands in the Indian Ocean. Besides these, a second species of t/^lva, re- 

 sembling a small brown lettuce, and jFucus vesiculosus are converted into 

 an inferior kind of food by the poor people on the souther:, coast of Ireland, 

 while those on the western extract a superior and more nutritive kind of 

 sustenance from the fronds of the jF'iicus crispus. The wretched people, 

 who are necessitated to have recourse to such coarse and nauseous food as 

 the pounded substance of the i^iicus vesiculosus and saccharinus, are neither 

 to be envied nor imitated ; but the jelly obtained by boiling the Javanese 

 plant, and the jPucus crispus, when properly saved and prepared, are not to 

 be despised,' nor the mess procured by stewing and chopping the i/'lva umbi- 

 licata, and known by the name of stoke or laver. — T. J. 



Preserviiig A'lgcSy and collecting Viici. — I shall be glad if some of youi* 

 readers will instruct me as to the best method of preserving the yi'lgae, and 

 making them retain their colour. I should also be glad to learn what is 

 the best month for collecting the different specimens of British jPiici, and 

 any other information relative to this pleasing pursuit. Is there any work 

 upon the subject, with coloured plates, less expensive than the recent splen- 

 did production of Mr. Dawson Turner ? — C. N. Jan. 14. 1830. 



Limestone Quarries at Ledbury. — Sir, Having received much gratification from the perusal of 

 your able correspondent Mr. Jukes's remarks on the trilobites at Barr and Dudley, and perceiv- 

 ing that he expresses (Vol. II. p.l233.) a wish for some information relative to the limestone at 

 Ledbury in Herefordshire, I took the opportunity of a few days' residence in the neighbourhood 

 to examine the quarries, and beg to enclose the specimens I then obtained, trusting they may 

 prove in some degree useful. 



I find that there are two strata of limestone quarried at Ledbury : an upper ferruginous stratum, 

 abounding with shells and alcyonia ; and an under, darker, and more compact stratum, of a crys- 

 talline nature. It is in the upper limestone bed that the trilobites are principalis/ found, though 

 a few have been, and still are, occasionally discovered in the lower stratum ; but the principal 

 workman there assured me that it was more than two years ago since any perfect ones had been 

 found there. I could neither hear nor see any thing of the large trilobite, except the indefinite 

 statement, that larger ones than ordinary were very rarely found. I have sent with this letter a 

 few specimens of the imperfect trilobites I obtained, with a perfect one of a different species, 

 which I trust will be sufficient for the purposes of identification. Whether the four specimens 

 which I send are the tail part of the A'saphus caud^tus or not, I leave you to say; they are cer- 

 tainly much broader in proportion to their length than the figure given Vol. II. p. 43., and some 

 are so much so as to give them the appearance of a butterfly, the name by which they are popu- 

 larly known among the workmen. At any rate, this is the trilobite, the lower portions of which 

 are found abundantly here, but the upper parts are quite scarce, and I was unable to obtain even 

 one. They were formerly more abundant, a workman of the upper stratum informed me, but 

 as they are now deeper in the bed, they rarely find them. 



The small trilobite, in transition limestone, which I send herewith, and which, I understand, is 

 scarce in the Ledbury quarries, I trust, will prove worthy your attention, as it is nearly, if not 

 quite, perfect, and it is extremely simple in its form. This, I believe, is from the imder stratum ; 

 and I could not hear that any other trilobites were to be found here. I likewise send you a large 

 shell from the upper stratum. 



The geology of this part of the country seems at present to be but little understood, though it 

 well deserves attention. At the distance of four miles the primitive chain of the Malvern Hills lift 

 their numerous heads like mountain waves terminating a verdant ocean, and a beautiful vale in- 

 tervenes between them and the limestone eminences, which for a considerable distance run paral- 

 lel with them. At the north end of the Malvern chain the limestone hills lie'grouped apparently 

 in much confusion, a chain, however, extending to the nsrth, towards, the Abberley Hills ; but the 

 romantic valley of the Teme intervenes ; and at Knightsford the river rushes swiftly along at the 

 base of an immense and nearly perpendicular conglomerate rock, upwards of 200 ft. high. I ittle 

 research has been made into the Kubterraneous treasures of this district, but a shaft is now being 

 sunk at Cradley, about two miles from Great Malvern, which may probably throw some light upon 

 the subject. — Edwin Lees. Hunter's Hall, near Little Malvern, Sept. 15. 1829 



T/te Lime-Works at Colwall. — Since writing the above I have visited the lime- works at Cohvall, 

 close to the base of the Malvern range, on the western side, and about a quarter of a mile from a 

 road cut through the hills, called the Wych. The transition limestone here abuts against the 

 range, and various limestone eminences appear, .stretching in a confused manner northwards to 

 Cradley, where, as 1 before observed, a shaft is now being sunk, in the expectation of finding 

 coal. The stratum of limestone at Colwall dips to the west, and is evidently a different bed from 

 that at Ledbury, which is four miles to the south-west, the fossils here being different from those 

 at Ledbury. I noticed many cprallites, with some fine specimens of chain coral, lying about near 

 the quarry, and the stone in the upper part of the bed is in many places abundantly covered with 

 minute zoophytes, in the manner of the Dudley specimens, but unattended by trilobites ; however, 

 in a stone from the lower part of the stratum, I observed a small specimen of the Dudley trilobite 

 (Calymene Blumcnbach/j), but I neither saw nor heard of the trilobite popularly known among 

 he men as the butterfly (A'saphus caudatus). In a hole of a neglected part of the quarry, I 



