284 Remarkable Diffusion of Coralline Animalcules, §c. 



vix breviori, clevata : lestd tenui, membranacea. •. albumen copiosum, 

 corneum, album. Embryo oblongus. albus, bine convexus, hide 

 planiusculus, more Graminum extra albumen locatus eodemque 

 facie plana applicatus, fiiniculo maxime" strophiolato solummodo 

 obtectus ! extremitate radiculari (cauliculari) paullo latiori. 



Herba (Novae Hollandiae) perennis, rhizomate multicepite, caulibus sub- 

 simplicibus multangulis, foliis amplexicaulibiis ovato-lanceolatis, pedun- 

 culis axillaribus solatariis unijloris infra medium articulatis involucel- 

 loque 3-phyllo munitis. 



1 . T. Cuninykamii. 



On the Remarkable Diffusion of Coralline Animalcules from the 

 use of Chalk in the Arts of Life, as observed by Ehrenberg. 



An examination of the finest powdered sorts of cbalk which are 

 used in trade has afforded Professor Ehrenberg the following result, 

 that even in this finest condition not merely the inorganic part of the 

 chalk is become separated, but that it remains mixed with a great 

 number of well-preserved forms of the minute shells of Coral Animal- 

 cules. As powdered chalk is used for paper-hangings, Professor Ehren- 

 berg also examined these as well as the walls of his chambers which 

 were simply washed with lime, and even a kind of glazed vellum paper 

 called visiting cards, and obtained the very visible result, — demonstra- 

 ting the minuteness of division of independent organic life, — that those 

 walls and paper-hangings, and so doubtless all similar walls of rooms, 

 houses, and churches, and even glazed visiting cards prepared in the 

 above-mentioned manner (of which cards, many however, are made 

 with pure white lead, without any addition of chalk) present, when 

 magnified 300 diameters, and penetrated with Canada balsam, a delicate 

 mosaic of elegant coralline animalcules, invisible to the naked eye, but, 

 if sufficiently magnified, more beautiful than any painting that covers 

 them.— Pogg. Ann. 1839. No. 9. 



