NOTES AND QUERIES. 
491 
At the present, time a herring cannot be taken in Boston deep ; and if the 
crown of Enp;land depended on tlie mackerel caught at Yarmouth it would be 
forfeited. Is tliis eluinge 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-sborc near Boston, when 
it was a firm and extensive arenaceous plain at low tid(;. Tliis coast is now 
silted uj) with a deposit of a similar nature to the " warj)" of the Huiidjcr, and 
only one or two patches of the former sandy shore remains. To such an extent 
has the sea deposited this material in 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, which it is quite reasonable to suppose, it may have some connection 
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 which 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 fluviatde, 
or fluvio-marine deposits and the removal of species from a locality hi which it 
has been formerly abundant. — Yours &c., W., Nottingham. 
Fossil Ferns in FRUCTiriCATioN. — 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 obseiwations to the fossd species. 
Will you be kind enough to tell me if there are any works treating specially 
upon them, and which are cheap enough to be witliin 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 sufEcieutiy 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 veins, are only secondary matters ; the primary 
characters being taken from the form, and whether they be naked or covered by 
au iiidusium. In the cabmets of my friends and the larger collections wliicli 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 public 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 
oblige. Yours very respectfully, C. W. Crocker, Boyal Botanical Gardens, 
Kew. — The best authors on fossil ferns are : — Adolphe Brongniart, " Histoire 
des Vegetaux Fossiles" Paris, 1828, 1 vol., quaiio, which 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. Thi-ough which are scattered illustra- 
tions of many of our British fossil Fdickice ; the descriptions are extremely short. 
H. R. Goppert, " Systema Fdicum FossiHum." (with forty-foui- 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- 
botanisehen, Darstellung der Flora der Vorwelt." 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 au outline of fossil botany, and gives some description of the genera of 
