Ancient Insects and Scorpions. 207 



are able to draw water from the sucker, which the experiment 

 shows to be done, and, as a contrary function, to provide it with 

 sufficient nourishment from the parent tree to make a healthy 

 growth . 



It is a fact worthy of note, that this plant takes unusual care to 

 provide for its propagation. Most of the roots examined showed 

 evidence of buds already formed for another year, and wherever 

 the suckers had been cut down in previous seasons, two or more 

 buds had taken their place. In one instance where worms were 

 injuring the root, the expiring tissues redoubled their exertions, 

 and eight shoots and twelve buds were produced in 4 inches of 

 root . Such a state of affairs renders it exceedingly difficult to 

 eradicate the undergrowth of the Kobinia. 



III. Ancient Insects and Scorpions. 



Fossil scorpions have been known for some time as far down in 

 the geological series as the Carboniferous, in which formation about 

 twenty-five species of scorpions and spiders have been discovered, 

 but until last year no discovery of this kind had been announced in 

 any older rocks. In November last, Dr. Lindstrom of Stockholm, 

 announced the discovery of a well-preserved specimen of a true 

 scorpion, which he named Palceophoneus nuncius, in the Upper 

 Silurian of Sweden ; and in December of the same year, a similar 

 discovery in Scotland was announced by Dr. Hunter. In July 

 of this year, Prof. Whitfield of ISTew York described and 

 figured a third species in the Lower Helderberg series of the State 

 of Xew York. Thus this form of life has been at one bound, and 

 in three different localities, carried back from the Carboniferous to 

 the Silurian, a remarkable instance of the nearly simultaneous dis- 

 covery of new facts, in different places and by different observers. 

 It is also of interest that the crustaceans of the genus Eurypterus, 

 which have been called aquatic scorpions, appear in the same 

 formations in which the scorpions have now been found, so that it 

 would appear that the aquatic and aerial animals of this type of 

 structure originated together, or were at least contemporaneous in 

 the Silurian period. The Eurypterids, however, early became 

 extinct, while the scorpions survive. 



