Northern Notes and News. 



deepest covert being about one-third the intensity of that in the 

 open (that of its ally the Hornbeam being only one fifty-eighth). 

 The peculiar structure of its wood and leaves, the feebleness of 

 their conducting and transpiring elements, the extraordinary 

 inflorescence and the functions of the pollen grains, the powerful 

 amassment of oil in the seed and the thoroughgoing lignification 

 of the pericarp, the wide extension and food-searching efficacy 

 of the root system — all these are worthy of special study and 

 consideration. The crowning feature, with which all the rest 

 are connected, is the plethora of oil in the seed produced and 

 evolved by the protoplasm without the aid of starch— a circum- 

 stance which allies it physiologically with the Hornbeam and 

 Walnut, and separates it unequivocally from the Beech, Oak, 

 and Spanish Chestnut. 



NORTHERN NOTES and NEWS. 



Although the meeting - of the British Association this year was held in 

 Belfast, many matters relating- to the northern counties were brought 

 before the members, principally, however, in Section C (Geology). It was 

 particularly gratifying to find how deeply indebted several committees 

 of research were to the Yorkshire Naturalists' Union and to Yorkshire 

 workers. The Erratic Blocks' Committee's Report, for example, consisted 

 entirely of records supplied by the Yorkshire Boulder Committee and the 

 Belfast Society. Professor Watts referred to the great assistance given to 

 the Geological Photographs' Committee by Yorkshire geologists. The 

 Report of the Committee on the Movements of Underground Waters of 

 North-West Yorkshire dealt, naturally, with work in our larg-est County, 

 whilst the ground covered by the Committee for studying Life-Zones in the 

 British Carboniferous Rocks is largely situated in northern England. 



•>« 



Two new Committees were formed at the Belfast meeting for conducting 

 geological work. The first, with Professor Herdman as Chairman and 

 Mr. J. Lomas as Secretary, is to study the Fauna and Flora of British Trias. 

 The second is to make a thorough examination, by borings, etc., of the 

 deposits at Kirmington, Lincolnshire, which may be of pre-Glacial age. 

 This Committee consists of Mr. G. W. Lamplugh (Chairman), Messrs. C. 

 Reid, F. W. Harmer, Thomas Sheppard, and J. W. Stather (Secretary). 



In addition to the reports of committees already referred to, the follow- 

 ing papers, bearing on the geology of the northern counties, were read in 

 Section C:— 'On the Brockrams of the Vale of Eden, and the Evidence 

 they afford of an inter-Permian Movement of the Pennine Faults.' by P. I . 

 Kendall; " The Fossil Flora of the Cumberland Coal Field,' by E. A. 

 Newell Arber. The first of these appears in this number of ' The Naturalist. ' 



o<M 



A paper on the occurrence of Foraminifera in the Boulder-clay 

 rise to a discussion which will long be remembered by those who 

 present. A well-known professor of geology was bold enough to spe; 

 some length in favour of the marine origin of the Boulder-clay. rhis gave 

 the glacialists an opportunity of stating their case. When, however, 

 arch-priest amongst the glacialists commenced his criticisms, the 

 retired, in consequence of an important engagement, and no doubt much 

 k sport ' was missed in consequence. 



1902 October 1. 



