SCIENTIFIC SUMMARY. 
177 
finding similar manifestations of his 1 Urzelle ’ in all sorts of rocks, belonging 
to all sorts of series, in granite, in Carrara marble, in various crystalline rocks, 
in basalt, and finally in meteoric stones and meteoric iron. Not unnaturally 
the forms of the plants are numerous and diversified, and the author dis- 
tinguishes a host of genera and specfes, in the names of most of which we 
find traces of the same carelessness as in the case of Eophyllum. These 
simple cellular Algae are described as presenting points of structure which 
belong to the most dissimilar groups of plants ; they have stems, buds, and 
prothallia, the stems and cells are seen in conjugation, &c. 
We may cite a few of the names conferred upon these wonderful organ- 
isms. One is named Ophthalmia Hochstetteri, another Dufferinia, in honour 
of Lord Dufferin, and another Victoria , in honour (?) of the Queen of 
England ; Mr. Darwin is complimented by being made to stand sponsor to a 
Marmora Darioini, the Crown Prince of Austria has a Stygia named after 
him ; while the German Emperor is honoured by having his name attached 
to a species coming from above instead of below, namely, TJrania Guilielmi, 
discovered in the meteoric storm of Knyahinya. Two people upon whom 
this questionable compliment is conferred come off rather worse than the 
rest, and one of these is no other than Prince Bismarck, 'unser Reichskanzler.’ 
1 The first animal ’ is named Titanus Bismarki, in honour of this distinguished 
individual; it is said to be a serpuliform worm, and its resemblance to the 
illustrious chancellor of the German Empire would appear to consist in its 
wearing a cuirass (. Kieselpanzer ) and being of a rather paunchy figure. It is 
to be hoped that Prince Bismarck can enjoy a joke even at his own expense, 
otherwise Dr. Hahn may find cause to repent him of this one. The other 
name is worse, and while its presence here seems to be conclusive as to the 
ironical character of this book, its use is, we think, most strongly to be 
reprobated. Dr. Hahn names one of his species, obtained from flint-nodules 
which he erroneously supposed to be from the Silurian of Canada, Photophoba 
Dawsoni, 1 Dawson’s Light-dreader,’ we presume, or it might be 1 Dawson’s 
dread of the light ; ’ and as if this was not a sufficient affront, he expresses a 
hope that over this delectable piece of false wit he and Dr. Dawson may 
shake hands in token of reconciliation,! 
But we have not yet quite done- with Dr. Hahn. The essence of an 
ironical work, such as we believe this to be, is to start with absurd pro- 
positions and work them out as logically, as possible to their extreme 
consequences ; and thus, out of the discovery of JEdphyllum canadense, there 
springs under the author’s pen a new theory of rocks, and indeed of the 
formation of the earth, and all that it contains. These cellular plants that 
we have been discussing are by no means to be regarded as fossils in the 
ordinary sense of the word ; they are, in most cases, the actual producers of 
the rocks in which their traces occur ; even the crystalline rocks not being 
exempt. 1 Granite,’ we are told, 'is nothing but a plant-mass ; there is no 
j rock-mass wfith it ; all is plant ! ’ The crystals of minerals themselves seem 
to represent the cells of the plant ! Hence we are led by degrees to the 
| recognition of the startling fact that the crust of the earth on which we live 
is a sort of Sargasso bed, built up in the course of ages by the energy of the 
I ‘ Urzelle,’ and floating upon some kind of primordial ocean. The ' Urzelle ’ 
itself is proved to be still at work by its occurrence in basalts and lavas of 
! NEW SERIES, VOL. IV. NO. XIV. 
N 
