SCIENCE-GOSSIP. 



119 



Ft. 



Ft. 





30 



457 ) 





18 

 15 



475 

 490 



Woolwich 

 Series. 



15 



505 





II 



516 . 





Mottled Clay 



Brown Loamy Sand 



Sand 



Brown Clay 



Greensand . . 



Chalk and Flints . . 484 1000 



In boring into the Chalk for water, a very 

 noticeable phenomenon still awaits a satisfactory 

 explanation, viz., that whereas one boring will 

 yield a good supply, another boring but a short 

 distance away will give but very little water. 

 Greater or less proximity to the River Thames will 

 not explain this, nor will a possible induration 

 resulting from pressure of a great thickness of 

 overlying tertiaries ; for these could have but little 

 effect in consolidating the Chalk over and above its 

 natural consolidation. It seems to me rather to 

 be caused by the partial character of different beds 

 in the Chalk, caused by the percolation of water 

 charged with indurating salts. These hardened 

 layers have not necessarily any connection with 

 such recognized beds as the Chalk Rock, Melbourne 

 Rock, etc. A hard local layer of a basin-shape 

 arrangement would have the effect of keeping down 

 the water locally, whilst perhaps not a quarter of 

 a mile away the supply would be plentiful. 



At the following borings the supply was meagre in 

 the extreme : Chertsey, Brentford (Royal Brewery), 

 Ealing (Local Board), Fulham (Batey and Co.), 

 West Kensington (Whiteley's), St. James's (Mason 

 Yard), Soho Square (Crosse and Blackwell's). 



On the other hand a plentiful supply from the 

 Chalk was found at Albert Hall Mansions, South 

 Kensington, and Fulham (Kops'). 



Chelsea Botanical Garden. — The little 

 botanical garden at Chelsea, full of quaint 

 associations, is, we hope, safe at last. Many 

 have been the threats of the builder fiend, 

 who has more than once nearly succeeded in 

 acquiring the eligible site occupied by the pretty 

 garden of the Apothecaries' Guild of London. Its 

 three acres were originally leased, in 1673, by 

 Lord Cheyne to the Apothecaries' Company for 

 a barge house, when each of the City Guilds 

 possessed their State barges and the River Thames 

 was the great highway, east or west, to or from the 

 City. When Sir Hans Sloane purchased Cheyne's 

 Chelsea estate he presented the site, in trust, to the 

 Company, with certain conditions, the chief being 

 that the holding should be maintained as a "physic 

 garden " for the Apothecaries' apprentices. There 

 they were to learn the medical uses of plants 

 and to distinguish the good from the poisonous. 

 Another condition was that the Company should 

 send annually from the garden fifty specimens of 

 dried plants to the Royal Society, until 2,000 had 

 been delivered. This custom ceased in 1793, and 

 in 1853 the herbarium was added to the British 

 Museum Botanical Department. It has now been 

 decided that the London Parochial Charities' 

 Trustees shall take over the trust from the 

 Apothecaries and in future maintain the garden as 

 intended by Sir Hans Sloane. 



contributed by flora winstone. 



Field Columbian Museum Publications 

 (Chicago, U.S. A, Nos. 26 and 27, March, 1898). 

 These numbers belong to the Zoological Series, 

 the first being devoted to a list of a collection of 

 shells from the Gulf of Aden, obtained by the 

 museum's East African expedition. It represents 

 only the casual sea-shells found, for no time was 

 available for proper search. It is compiled by 

 Dr. W. H. Dall, of the National Museum at 

 Washington, and does not contain any new species. 

 No. 27 includes lists of the mammals obtained in 

 the States of Iowa, Wyoming, Montana, Idaho, 

 Nevada and California, with description of new 

 species by Mr. D. G. Elliot, F.R.S.E. The 

 animals are from various small collections, and 

 principally rodents 



The Victorian Naturalist (Melbourne, June, 

 July, 1898). At a meeting, in May last, of the 

 Field Naturalists' Club of Victoria, Mr. D. M'Alpine 

 drew attention to and exhibited some edible fungi 

 of that part of Australia, including Coprinus coronatus, 

 and a puff-ball fungus that forms " fairy-rings " in 

 grass fields and lawns in the vicinity of Melbourne. 

 In the June number also, a new Labiate plant, 

 Hemigenia macphersoni Luehmann, is described by 

 Mr. J. G. Luehmann, F.L.S. It is a shrub growing 

 to five feet in height, with purplish flowers, three- 

 quarters of an inch long. The July number 

 contains the annual report of the above society. 

 Mr. M'Alpine contributed to the June meeting, 

 " Notes on Fungi of Kerguelen Island," founded on 

 plants collected by Mr. Robert Hall during a 

 recent visit. Of ten species obtained, two were 

 new to science and attached to the genera Panaeohis 

 and Fusarium. An interesting discussion took 

 place at the same meeting on the suggested intro- 

 duction of certain insectivorous birds from Europe 

 to cope with various insect pests already estab- 

 lished in the colony, and of European origin. 

 The general feeling of those present appeared to 

 be against any more introductions of aliens, some 

 of which might change their habits of life with 

 the novelty of their surroundings. A new moss, 

 Daivsonia victoriae Mueller, is referred to by Mr. 

 F. M. Reader, who translates Mueller's original 

 Latin description. 



Proceedings of the Academy of Natural 

 Sciences (Philadelphia, Part i. 1898, January, 

 February, March). This part contains 200 pp. 

 and 8 plates, 9J inches by 6 inches. There are 

 twenty-two articles of considerable interest, includ- 

 ing " Anatomical Notes on certain West American 

 Helices," by H. A. Pilsbry and E. G. Vanetta ; 

 " Volcanic Rocks of Mesozoic Age in Pennsylvania, " 

 by E. Goldsmith ; " Observations on Errant 

 Frustules of Eunotia major'''' (a diatom), by T. 

 Chalkley Palmer; and "Description of a New 

 Tethys (Aplysea)," by E.J. Letson, all of which 

 are illustrated by plates. Mr. Goldsmith's paper 

 is admirably illustrated and forms a valuable con- 

 tribution to the petrology of the part of Pennsyl- 

 vania described. 



