NOTES AND QUERIES. 



491 



At the present time a herring cannot be taken in Boston deep ; and if the 

 crown of England depended on the mackerel caught at Yarmouth it would be 

 forfeited. Is this change of habitat occasioned by any alteration in the sea- 

 bottom, or from some change in the direction of sea-currents ? 



I remember when a boy to have played on the sea-shore near Boston, when 

 it was a firm and extensive arenaceous plain at low tide. This coast is now 

 silted up \vit\i a deposit of a similar nature to the " warp" of the Humber, and 

 only one or two patches of the former sandy shore remains. To such an extent 

 has the sea deposited this material iii that portion of the Wash, that an en- 

 closure of thirty -two thousand acres has been seriously spoken of. If this same 

 condition that exists on the shore is extended over any considerable area of sea- 

 bottom, wliich it is quite reasonable to suppose, it may have some comiection 

 with the departure of the herrings from those waters. 



I am but an amateur geologist — young in the science but anxious to know 

 more of those important changes wliich have been in constant operation on the 

 earth's surface during a vast succession of geological periods. The above facts 

 appear to me to have some relation to those changes both as regards fluviatile, 

 or fluvio-marine deposits and the removal of species from a locality in which it 

 has been formerly abundant. — Yours &c., "W., Nottingham. 



Fossil Feens in Ehuctification. — Dear Sir, — I have paid considerable 

 attention to recent ferns, both natives of the tropics and of cooler regions of 

 the earth, and I wish now to extend my observations to the fossil species. 

 Will you be kind enough to teU me if there are any works treating specially 

 upon them, and which are cheap enough to be withm my reach ? Lyell and 

 the other authors I possess, or can borrow, mention many genera, but seldom, 

 if ever, give their distinguishing characteristics. We shall no doubt have de- 

 scriptions of them sufficiently clear when your articles upon "The Common 

 Fossils of the British Bocks" have advanced so far as the Carboniferous-period, 

 but I am somewhat impatient to proceed with the study of them. 



In the arrangement of the recent species the form of the frond and the vena- 

 tion, or arrangement of the vems, are only secondary matters ; the primary 

 characters being taken from the form, and whether they be naked or covered by 

 an indusium. In the cabinets of my friends and the larger collections which I 

 have seen, I have in vain sought for any specimens bearing their fructification. 

 Lyell says they are found " for the most part destitute of fructification ;" I am 

 therefore led to imagine that fertile fronds are sometimes discovered, though 

 rarely. Can you tell me if there are any in the pubhc collections in London 

 which still retain their fructification ? I am extremely anxious to compare 

 them with living forms ; and by information on these points you would greatly 

 obKge, Yours very respectfully, C. W. Crocker, Boyal Botanical Gardens, 

 Kew. — The best authors on fossil ferns are : — Adolphe Brongniart, " Histoire 

 des Yegetaux Fossiles" Paris, 1828, 1 vol., quarto, wliich contains illustrations 

 and descriptions of a large number of the known genera and species. — Lindley 

 and Hutton, "The Fossil Flora of Great Britain," with figures and brief de- 

 scriptions, London, 1831., 3 vols., octavo. Through which are scattered illustra- 

 tions of many of our British fossil Fiiicinse ; the descriptions are extremely short. 

 H. E,. Goppert, " Systema Fihcum Fossilium." (with forty-four plates) Bres- 

 law and Bonn, 1836, quarto. The figures are very good, and many examples of 

 fructification are given.— G. K. Sternberg, "Fersuch einer geognostisch- 

 botanischen, Darstellung der Flora der Yorwelt." Leipsic and Prague, 1820, 

 folio, 2 vols. The plates of this work are beautifully executed; and the 

 descriptions, being in Latin, are more accessible to the general student than 

 the German text. 



Mantell's "Medals of Creation," vol. i., second edition, 1854, octavo, con- 

 tains an outline of fossil botany, and gives some description of the genera of 



