6. Note on an indication of depth of Primeval Seas, afforded by the remains of color in Fossil Testacea; by EDWARD FORBES, F.R.S., Pres. G. S., (Proc. Roy. Soc., March, 1854.)-When engaged in the investigation of the bathymetrical distribution of existing mollusks, the author found that not only did the color of their shells cease to be strongly marked at considerable depths, but also that well-defined patterns were, with very few and slight exceptions, presented only by testacea inhabiting the littoral, circumlittoral and median zones. In the Mediterranean only one in eighteen of the shells taken from below 100 fathoms exhibited any markings of color, and even the few that did so, were questionable inhabitants of those depths. Between 35 and 55 fathoms, the proportion of marked to plain shells was rather less than one in three, and between the sea-margin and 2 fathoms the striped or mottled species exceeded one-half of the total number. In our own seas the author observes that testacea taken from below 100 fathoms, even when they were individuals of species vividly striped or banded in shallower zones, are quite white or colorless. Between 60 and 80 fathoms, striping and banding are rarely presented by our shells, especially in the northern provinces; and from 50 fathoms shallow-wards, colors and patterns are well marked. The relation of these arrangements of color to the degrees of light penetrating the different zones of depth, is a subject well worthy of minute inquiry, and has not yet been investigated by natural philosophers. The purpose in this brief notice is not, however, to pursue this kind of research, but to put on record an application of our knowledge of the fact that vivid patterns are not presented by testacea living below certain depths, to the indication of the depth, within certain limits, of palæozoic seas, through an examination of the traces of color afforded by fossil remains of testacea. Although their original color is very rarely exhibited by fossil shells, occasionally we meet with specimens, in which, owing probably to organic differences in the minute structure of the colored and colorless portions of the shell, the pattern of the original painting is clearly distinguished from the ground tint. Not a few examples are found in mesozoic as well as in tertiary strata, but in all the instances on record, the association of species, mostly closely allied to existing types, and the habits of the animals of the genera to which they belong, are such as to prevent our having much difficulty about ascertaining the probable bathymetrical zone of the sea in which they lived. But in paleozoic strata the general assemblage of articulate, molluscan and radiate forms is so different from any now existing with which we can compare it, and so few species of generic types still remaining are presented for our guidance, that in many instances we can scarcely venture to infer with safety the original bathymetrical zone of a deposit from its fossil contents. Consequently any fact that will help us in elucidating this point becomes of considerable importance. Traces of coloring are rarely presented by palæozoic fossils, and the author knows of few examples in which they have been noticed. Professor Phillips, in his 'Geology of Yorkshire,' represents the carboniferous species, Pleurotomaria flammigera (i. e. carinala) and conica, as marked with color, and Sowerby has figured such markings in P. carinata and P. rotundata. In the excellent monograph of the carboniferous fossils of Belgium, by Professor De Koninck of Liège, indications of pattern-coloring are faintly shown in the figures of Solarium pentangulatum, and distinctly in those of Pleurotomaria carinata and Patella solaris. In the cabinets of the Geological Survey of Great Britain are some finely-preserved fossils from the carboniferous limestone of Parkhill, near Longnor in Derbyshire. Among these are several that present unmistakable pattern-markings, evidently derived from the original coloring. They are Pleurotomaria carinata and conica, showing wavy blotches, resembling the coloring of many recent Trochide. An undescribed Trochus, showing a spiral band of color. Patella? retrorsa, both with radiating stripes, such as are presented by numerous existing Patellida. Natica plicistria, with broad mottled bands. Ariculo-pecten, a large unnamed species, with spotty markings on the ribs in the manner of many existing Pectines. Ariculo-pecten sublobatus, Ph.? Beautifully marked with radiating, well-defined stripes, varying in each individual, and resembling the patterns presented by those recent Avicule that inhabit shallows and moderate depths. Aviculo-pecten intercostatus and elongatus also exhibit markings. Spirifer decorus and Orthis resupinata, show fine radiating white lines. Terebratula hastata, with radiating stripes. The analogy of any existing forms that can be compared with those enumerated, would lead to the conclusion that the markings in these instances are characteristic of mollusks living in less depth of water than 50 fathoms. In the case of the Terebratula, which belongs to a genus the majority of whose living representatives inhabit deep water, it may be noticed that all the living species exhibiting striped shells are exceptions to the rule, and come from shallow water. There are many circumstances which warrant us to suspect that the carboniferous mountain limestone of most regions was a deposit in shallow water. The facts now adduced materially strengthen this inference. In the British Museum there is a beautifully spotted example of a Devonian Terebratula, brought by Sir John Richardson from Boreal America. Specimens of the Turbo rupestris, from the Lower Silurian Limestone of the Chair of Kildare near Dublin, exhibit appearances that seem to indicate spiral bands of color. 7. Arsenate of Lead and Vanadate of Lead.-Beautiful specimens of these two minerals have been detected by Dr. J. Lawrence Smith among the minerals coming from the Wheatley Mine near Phoenix. ville, Penn. A full description of them will be given in his next paper on the reëxamination of American minerals. 8. On the Identity of Ripidolite of von Kobell with Clinochlore; by N. von KOKSCHAROV.-M. N. von Kokscharov has sent us an elaborate paper on the Clinochlore of Achmatowsk and its identity with Ripidoite, which is crowded out of this number and will appear in our next. III. BOTANY AND ZOOLOGY. 1. Martius, Flora Brasiliensis: fasc. XII. Dec., 1853. (folio.)— This part of Professor Martius's elaborate Flora of Brazil, which has been long in reaching us, comprises the Urticinea, which are elaborated by Prof. Miquel of Amsterdam, who had already published an excellent and much-needed monograph of the Fig tribe. We are pleased to see that a botanist so thoroughly acquainted with Urticineous plants, and of such sound judgment, does not regard them as a group of orders, but as constituting one large and polymorphous order; the Urticineæ in his view being even more extensive than the Urticeæ of Jussieu, inasmuch as he takes in the Ulmea also. Different as the types of the several included groups are, yet they are so intimately connected by every kind of intermediate form that, in Prof. Miquel's opinion, they are not to be definitely separated. His Urticineæ accordingly embrace four suborders, viz,-the Artocarpea (including Morea), the Ulmacea, the Urticea, and the Cannabineæ. All but the last of these are of course represented in the Brazilian flora; the Artocarpeæ by 16 genera and a large number of species; the Ulmacea by Celtis and Sponia; and the Urticinea by 6 genera. The descriptions are illustrated by 45 elaborate folio plates. A. G. 2. The non-assimilation of Nitrogen by Plants.-M. BOUSSINGAult has published, in the Annales des Sciences Naturelles, 4th ser., tom. i, No. 4 and 5, the details of an interesting and well-devised investigation upon the vegetation of several plants, of different families, from which ammonia and all azotized organic matter were excluded; and he finds that under these conditions there is no more nitrogen in the resulting vegetation than there was in the seed, but usually a considerable loss of this element; showing that the nitrogen of the atmosphere is not assimilated by plants in such cases. Another memoir is promised illustrating the conditions under which this element is assimilated when plants are grown in a sterile soil in the open air. A. G. 3. Lupulin.-The corpuscles on the bracts and ovaries of the Hop, to which hops owe their essential qualities, have lately been studied, both structurally and chemically, by M. Personne. Their development is explained in the Ann. Sci. Nat., ser. 4, tom. i, No. 5, and illustrated by fine figures drawn by M. Trécul. The corpuscles are of the nature of epidermal glands, of a cup-shaped or saucer-shaped form, the cells of which secrete a yellow liquid, which at length distends the gland, and elevates the cuticle of the upper surface into a form resembling the acorn surrounded below by its cup. The account of these corpuscles given by Raspail appears to have little more foundation in fact than his hypothesis that they are analogous to pollen. A. G. 4. The Fertilization of Ferns.-The most important fact in respect to the fertilization of the higher Cryptogamia, which has been brought to light since the publication of Mr. Henfrey's Report on the subject, (reproduced in this Journal, vol. xiv,) has just been furnished by Hofmeister. Suminski, indeed, who discovered the two kinds of organs on the prothallia, or seed-leaves of germinating Ferns, affirmed that he had seen the moving spiral filaments, or spermatozoids, of the anthe ridia enter the canal of the archegonia (called by him ovules); but his observations were not thought altogether trustworthy in this and in some other particulars. But Hofmeister, one of the ablest vegetable anatomists, and the most experienced and trustworthy in this kind of investi gation, has recently announced (in Proceedings of the Royal Society of Sciences of Saxony, April 22, 1854) that he has seen the moving spermatozoids, not only in the canal of the archegonium of Ferns, but even (in three instances) in the cavity of its central cell, in which the germinal vesicle originates, "actively moving about the germinal vesicle, which is adherent to the vaulted apex of the central cell near the inner extremity of the canal, with its hemispherical free end hanging down in the cavity. In one case where these spermatozoids had arrived at the central cell of an archegonium of Aspidium Filix-Mas, the movements lasted for seven minutes from the commencement of the observation. The cessation was accompanied (and probably caused) by the coagulation of the albuminous substance of the fluid contents of the central cell." (Henfrey's transl. in Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., No. 82.) In several instances he has seen motionless spermatozoids, lying by the side of the partially developed germinal vesicle. A. G. 5. Botanical Necrology.-The year now closing has been a fatal one to an unusual number of scientific men, and especially to botanists. In addition to those mentioned in the last number of this Journal, namely, Dr. Fischer, M. Moricand, and Mr. Webb, we have now to lament the decease of Mr. WINTERBOTTOM and Dr. STOCKS, two English botanists, who had made extensive collections in different parts of India, and had returned home to elaborate their ample materials. Also of G. W. BISCHOFF, Professor of Botany in the University of Heidelberg, a voluminous author, especially of works upon terminology, &c., and an admirable draughtsman. He died of apoplexy on the 11th of September; aged about 60 years. To the list must be added the more celebrated name of M. MIRBEL, one of the most distinguished vegetable anatomists of the age. His earliest publications bear the date of 1801; his latest memoir, on the embryology of Pinus (in which M. Spach was associated with him,) was read before the Academy of Sciences in the autumn of 1843. He shortly afterwards retired from his professorship at the Jardin des Plantes, on account of enfeebled health, and has continued with his mind totally prostrated by disease until his death, on the 13th of September. He was one of the luminaries of a past generation. A comparison of his Traité d'Anatomie et de Physiologie Végétales, and his Elèmens de Physiologie Végétales et de Botanique, with the similar treatises of the present day, will well show the progress that has been made in the science during the first half of the nineteenth century. A. G. 6. Payer; Traité d'Organogénie Végétale Comparée, livr. 1-4. Imp. 8vo. Paris: Victor Masson, 1854.-This elaborate work is to form two volumes of letter-press, and an Atlas of 150 plates, of the same imperial 8vo. size. It is issued in monthly numbers, each of about 48 pages of letter-press and 9 or 10 plates. The latter are crowded with admirable details, each having 30 or 40 separate figures. The organogeny of each natural order of plants is treated in succession, and illustrated by details from one or more genera; the figures exhibSECOND SERIES, Vol. XIX, No. 55.-Jan., 1855. 17 iting the whole development of the principal organs of the blossom, from their earliest appearance to the completed flower-bud. Such investigations are of high importance; although they are not likely to modify very materially views soundly based upon comparison of floral characters. Still they often furnish data for elucidating obscure points of botanical affinity or morphology, or a decisive test of the correctness of an ingenious hypothesis;-data which M. Payer sometimes turns to good account, although he cannot be said thus far to evince any remarkable aptitude for the discussion of such questions. We notice here and there points brought forward as new which have been elsewhere published for some time. A. G. 7. The Micrographic Dictionary; by GRIFFITH and HENFREY. (Van Voorst, London.)-Parts III, IV, and V, have reached us since our last notice of this valuable work: the latter ending, on page 128, with the article Ceruminous glands. The articles which strike us as most interesting and important are those upon Angular aperture, Blood, Bone (which is admirably illustrated), and the Cell, especially that on the Vegetable cell. A. G. 8. The Individual in Plants, in its relation to Species, is the title of a recent Memoir by Professor Braun of Berlin, of so much general interest, and so ably handled, that we hope we may be able to publish a copious abstract of it in a future number of this Journal. A. G. 9. On the Influence of the Solar Radiations on the Vital Powers of Plants growing under different Atmospheric Conditions; by J. H. GLADSTONE, (Proc. Brit. Assoc., Athen., No. 1405.)-This was the second Report given by the author under the same title, and commenced by describing accurately what portions of the prismatic spectrum were cut off by the various colored glasses employed in his experiments. A series of observations followed on hyacinths grown under very varied influences of light, and solar heat, and chemical agency. Among the results may be mentioned the power of the yellow ray to diminish the growth of rootlets, and the absorption of water; the power of the red ray to hinder the proper development of the plant; and the effect of total darkness in causing a rapid and abundant growth of thin rootlets, in preventing the formation of the green coloring matter, but not of that of the blue flower, nor of the other constituents of a healthy plant. A series of experiments on germination was then detailed. Wheat and peas had been grown without soil under large colorless, blue, red, yellow, obscured colorless, and obscured yellow glasses, and in perfect darkness. The effects resulting from these varied conditions were very marked; and the description of them occupies a considerable space in the Report. The two plants experimented on-being chosen from the two great botanical divisions-exhibited a wide diversity, sometimes amounting to a direct opposition, in their manner of being affected by the same solar ray; but in the case of both the plants, under the circumstances of the experiment, the following effects were observed:-The cutting off of the chemical ray facilitates the process of germination, and that both in reference to the protrusion of the radicles, and the evolution of the plume: the stem grows unnaturally tall, and there is a poor development of leaves in darkness, becoming more manifest as the darkness is more complete; |