158 
Miscellaneous. 
1st. What I considered as vessels were said to be mere marks of 
sliding of the coal. Prof. Bailey prepared a specimen of this by his 
method, and told me that if I found vessels there, my proposition was 
correct. Examined by Agassiz and myself, with his large Oberhauser, 
it turns out to be nothing but a mass of perforated vessels, as clear 
and distinct as if they were recent. M. Agassiz observed, “One 
moment suffices to remove every doubt on the subject.” 
2nd. What I considered as fossil seeds were said to be mere pea- 
cock-eye coal ; the dark carbonaceous centres of these seeds, which 
I held to be carbonized cellular matter, was thought to be a mere 
mistake and the seeds imaginary. I have since discovered them 
with distinct and clear apparently spinous appendages. M. Agassiz 
thinks the seed a Samara, and I have found sufficient quantity to 
pick out the carbonaceous matter from the interior with a fine needle 
— decarbonize it in a clean platina crucible over a spirit-lamp, with 
every possible precaution to prevent any foreign substance mixing 
therewith. On examining this with the Oberhauser, 700 diameters, 
M. Agassiz showed to Dr. Gould and myself the cells as clear and 
plain as possible ; it is a mass of cellular matter, as I stated. You 
may of course imagine the extreme tenuity of the parietes of cells 
of seeds when decarbonized, and the difficulty of those less experi- 
enced than M. Agassiz in the microscope in managing the subject — 
he feels quite convinced of their being fossil seeds. The nature of the 
genus of plants must require further examination. 
3rd. The smooth glossy surfaces, which I considered the external 
parts of large plants rendered smooth by intense pressure, w^ere said 
to be nothing more than slickensides. My position here is proved 
much more easily than in the other cases, by specimens passing gra- 
dually from the smoother through different degrees of protuberance 
(all still smooth and polished), until we arrive at the full form of the 
Lepidodendron. Nay more, I have found the parallel lines (channels) 
which are on the slickensides, also on the perfectly-formed Lepido- 
dendra. The correctness of my views here I could prove to the 
most sceptical. 
The discoveries still to be made on this subject are numerous and 
important ; and I doubt not that the investigation of the coal itself 
will soon solve the doubts hitherto existing in the comparison of the 
coal fossils with recent plants. 
I will merely add, that I have found quite distinctly the impression 
of the eellular cuticle of some of these plants, which of course can- 
not be seen in an impression on shale, the grains of the sedimentary 
matter being as large as the surface of the cells ; but on the pasty 
mass of coal the imj^ression is perfect . — Silliman s Journal, November 
1847. 
A Fact respecting the Habits of Notonecta glauca. 
By Prof. Forrest Shepherd. 
In the evening twilight of a pleasant day in September 1846, Sir 
George Simpson encamped for the night, on his route from Red 
River to the head w’aters of the Mississippi, in the vicinity of lati- 
tude 48^ north and longitude 95° or 96° west from Greenwich. 
