418 
Scientific Intelligence. -—Botany, 
plausible the opinion of Boue, that fresh-water deposits begin 
only with the upper fresh water limestone,- — that the plastic clay, 
and gypsum, with bones, have been deposited under a salt or salt- 
ish water, or in lagoons, and that the fresh water and terrestrial 
fossil organic remains have been carried thither by rivers. Ac- 
cording to some authors, the sea was as high above the Alps at 
the time of the formation of the Paris basin, as when the 
magnesian limestone was deposited ; while others maintain, that 
the waters of the globe have subsided at two different epochs, 
those of the formation of porphyry, and the formation of basalt. 
— Note communicated to the Editor. 
15. Necker on the Dikes of Somma. — Necker, of Geneva, has 
published, in Mem. Soc. Phys. Gen. vol. 2, an interesting ac- 
count of the Lava Dikes of Somma. The first notice of these 
dikes was given by Sir James Hall in the Edinburgh Transac- 
tions, Vol. iii. 
BOTANY. 
16. Botanical Excursions to the Scottish Mountains in June 
and July 1824. — In the course of an excursion to the Breadal- 
bane Mountains in June last, two plants were added to the Bri- 
tish Flora, Arenaria rubella (Alsine rubella, Wahl. Lapp. 128. 
t. 6.) and Hypnum trfarium , Weber and Mohr. The first 
was discovered on the same day by Dr Greville and Mr 
Earle, who found it on different parts of Craig Challiach. A 
single specimen was subsequently detected on Ben Lawers. 
This plant is highly interesting, as it has hitherto been only 
known as a native of Lapland and the Arctic Begions, whence 
it was brought by the gentlemen who accompanied Captain 
Parry on his last voyage. The second new plant is Hypnum 
trfarium , which Dr Greville had the good fortune to discover 
on several mountains of the same range. Dr Hooker and Dr 
Greville consider this moss as unquestionably distinct from Hyp- 
num stramineum , to which it has been united by some foreign 
museologists. The leaves are perfectly regularly and beauti- 
fully trifarious. Several rare plants were also collected, as Saxi - 
fraga cernua ; S. nivalis ; and Salix rupestris. S. vaccini folia ; 
and other rare species (by Dr Hooker). Dry as odopetala ; Ca - 
rex atrata ; C. capillaris ; Splachnum vasculosum ; S. tenue ; 
