VARIETIES OF VIOLA ODORATA IN NOTTS. 



If the view regarding the derivative nature of the green, porphy- 

 ritic patches of stone found in the Dale, two miles above Ingleton — 

 notwithstanding certain signs of concretionary bodies and weathering 

 of inherent particles — be discarded, these masses of highly crystalline 

 and coarse-grained rock may be regarded as a kind of boss of igneous 

 formation, occupying the centre of the fold in the Silurians, which in 

 the case of the Doe and Crummack valleys vve find, either fully or in 

 part, offering itself as an obstacle to the course of one or other of the 

 glaciers that we observe in our mental vision traversing and grooving 

 the glens of the ancient hills : but this leads us to something else, a 

 total thickness of blue slates and hard non-fissile Lower Llandeiloes 

 of 6,600 feet to 7,000 feet. 



It is with some diffidence that certain views, here set forth, have 

 been explained, when the ground has been so well explored by 

 geologists already; yet the appearances are such as I have attempted 

 to show them to be, whether the conclusions which one has been 

 induced to form, as a result of their study, be sound or not ; it may, 

 however, be added that doubtless a much greater fund of valuable 

 information may be culled from the deposits of the district than the 

 few notes here set down, should such, as may take advantage of the 

 hints given, endeavour more arduously to do a really valuable work 

 for the geological brotherhood. 



NOTE— BOTANY. 



Varieties of Viola odorata. — In the neighbourhood of Tuxford, in Notts., 

 the sweet violet is extremely abundant, and of great variety of colour ; various 

 shades of light blue are found occasionally, though rare ; many are of a peculiar 

 red, somewhat like the colour of the common red primrose — this is probably the 

 variety mentioned in Ann Pratt's ' Plowering Plants of Great Britain,' where the 

 following passage occurs : ' The Rev. W. T. Bree found this flower of a red colour 

 at Castle Hill, Allersley, and on the mount of "Warwick Castle.' Some years ago 

 I sent several roots to Devonshire, where they increased rapidly, and no change of 

 colour took place. These occur at the commencement of the violet season, when 

 the blues are the most plentiful ; afterwards the white violets are the most common, 

 and with these appear flowers of a beautiful pearly-grey tint. — W. A. Gain, 

 Tuxford, Newark, Notts., April i8th, 1888. 



BAKER ON FERN ALLIES. 



Handbook of the Fern Allies : A Synopsis of the (Jenera and Species of the 

 Natural Orders Equisetaceae, Lycopodiace?e, Selaginellaceae, and Rhizo- 

 carpere. By J. G. Baker, P\R.S., F.L.S., etc. London: G. Bell & Sons. 

 1887. Demy 8vo., pp. 159. Price 5s. 



This work, the learned author's latest monograph, supplies a dis- 

 tinct want. Planned upon the same lines as Hooker and Baker s 

 Synopsis Filiciim, it su])plies the systematist with a diagnostic guide 

 to the whole known Fern-Allies, — the Horsetails, Club-Mosses, and 

 Pilhvorts; and the two books now overview ^/// the Vascular Cryp- 



I July 1888. 



