KOTES AND QUEEIES. 



Beitish Fossils axd Geolog-ical Maxipulatioxs. — To the Editor of the Geo- 

 logist. " Sir, — In perusing your article upon " The Common Fossils of the British 

 Eocks/' in the numbers of the GEOLoaiST, an idea struck me, that it would be of 

 very great assistance to all beginners in the science, like myself, if, in describing 

 the various strata, engraved figures of all the genera and si)ecies discovered up to 

 the present time were inserted, which are now only to be found in books of an 

 expensive character. If this were done, beginners v.'ould very much more readily 

 determine their specimens, as vrell as be able to identify the strata to which they 

 belong ; thus facilitating them in comparing the specimens M'hich they may have 

 collected with those in the British and Jermyn-street Museums, and saving their 

 time, which to those ^\'llo are not in very ample circmnstances, is extremely 

 valuable. I also think that a fev/ concise observations upon collecting and 

 arranging would likewise he of great ser\'ice, embracing the most useful forms of 

 hammers, the easiest way of extracting fossils from the matrix with which they may 

 be encumbered, &c. Ar^iATOR Xatuk.t:." — It has been, from the commencement of his 

 article on Common Fossils, the intention of the Editor to give illustrations of all the 

 common British fossils, with explicit descriptions of their nature, character, and 

 order of classification ; as also to di'aw, wherever practical)le, comparisons with 

 existing forms. It was necessary, however, l)efore doing this, to popularize the 

 general subject of geological doctrir.es concerning the formation of rock-masses 

 and the sequence of geological events. The Editoi-'s articles deal more especially 

 with the common fossils ; " the gems of private collections " Avill include the rarer 

 specimens, so that l)y moans of these two series both the man of science and the 

 student will be furnished \x\t\\ accurate figures of at least most, if not all, our 

 British fossils. Arraugcraents have already been made for articles upon such 

 useful topics as those suggested l)y oiu- corresi)Oiidcnt in the latter part of his 

 letter. One of these, with which we h:ive \,qc\\ Icindly favoured by Mr. T. liupert 

 Jones, is printed in this num'oer ; and will be followed, from time to time, by 

 others of a like practical character. We are obliged, at ail times, for such 

 suggestions, as they enable us the more fully to provide for the wants of our 

 readers. 



Vegetable P.e:\iaixs ix the Peioiiax oe the South oe Sheopsiiiee, &c. 

 By Mr. C. E. Eobeets, Kidderminster. — " The low hills which skirt the Severn at 

 Alveley, six miles south of Bridgnorth, composed of a Permian siliceous grit, locally 

 called ' Grindstones,''* have yielded me some badly -preserved vegetable remains, 

 which are, as far as I can read them, leaves of Cycadacece, possil)ly Nocggerathia. 

 These are worth noting, as being the first fossils detected in the beds of this 

 system, exposed m this district. 



I have just obtained a Piilodictya from the mountain-limestone of Far low, which 

 I cannot quite make out. In form and linear arrangement of cells it approaches 

 near to P. costellata, M'Coy, but the inter -cellular spaces are pitted in the line of 

 the rows with very minute oval cells, alternating one and two in numl^er. I have 

 several specimens on a slab, with Ftilodictya acuta and Fenestella patula, M^Coy. 

 Their state of preservation is exquisite. I have made out the ' flat internal axis ' 

 in one specimen, as noticed in McCoy's description of P. costellata, Contrib. Brit. 

 Pal. p. 174." 



Potato-stoxes, — Meecuey. — "Sir, — The 'potato-stones' are found in the 

 dolomitic conglomerate, at a spot where that rock dies out. They often contain 

 pieces of carbonate of lime in the centre, which may, perhaps, have been derived 

 from the Mountain-limestone, which is but a fe^v yards distant from the spot 

 Avhere the potato-stones are found. Since reading in the April number of the 



See " Silurian System," pi, SO, fig. 4. 



