Изображения страниц
PDF
EPUB

apocarpous fruit, pistils; in case of partial coherence counting one or several pistils, accordingly as the styles were separate or combined. With this view, we conclude that the term "pistil" should now only be used in connection with the Linnæan artificial system. Gynoecium we take to be the proper collective term for the whole of the carpels, one or many, as the case may be,—just as corolla expresses the whole of the petals, and androecium the whole of the stamens; but we believe no correct botanical writer would employ gynoecium to include any part occasionally connected with the carpels, but really not belonging to their circle; nor is it correct to describe a carpel as part of a pistil, which so often means a single carpel: it should have been explained, "one of the modified leaves composing the gynoecium;" or better, perhaps, an organ formed from a modified leaf in the interior of a flower, of which the lower portion is ovuliferous, the middle portion (when distinctly present called the style), serves to elevate the glandular extremity, called the stigma, through which the pollen acts upon the ovules."

[ocr errors]

The useless terms which Mr. Cooke has preserved are in our opinion very numerous. Thus we take from the few first pages, alabastrus, amphisarca, angienchyma, anthocarpous, anthodium, atractenchyma. What these words mean could be better expressed in plain ordinary English. They are only a burden to the science; and it is doing an injury to press them on the attention of ordinary students, amongst whom may be found those who will think it a sign of knowledge and skill to use them.

Mr. Cooke's book is prettily got up, and the illustrations are good and useful of their kind; but we cannot say that we think it judicious, or that it supplies a real want of any class of students. We cannot, therefore, bestow upon it any strong recommendation.

W. H.

Descriptive Catalogue of a Collection of the Economic Minerals of Canada, and of its Crystalline Rocks. Sent to the London International Exhibition for 1862.

This catalogue is an admirable work, not merely serving the purpose of a guide of the most useful kind to the collection in the exhibition, but being also a most convenient permanent record of the economic minerals of Canada, and the principal and best known

stations in which they occur. The arrangement has reference to the uses of the objects, and is exceedingly well-fitted to enable practical men to ascertain where what they may want is to be found. The following are the heads under which the mineral products are arranged; and the notes, of which we shall give a specimen or two, give information scientific as well as practical, useful, and precisely of the kind, we should suppose, which would be found most valuable.

1. Metals and their Ores.

2. Minerals applicable to Chemical Manufactures.

3. Refractory Minerals (for resisting fire).

4. Minerals applicable to Common and Decorative Construction. 5. Grinding and Polishing Minerals.

6. Mineral Manures.

7. Mineral Paints.

8. Minerals applicable to the Fine Arts.

9. Minerals applicable to Jewellery.

10. Miscellaneous Minerals.

The following is the note on the Bruce mines, Lake Huron :

"2. Bruce Mines, Lake Huron....... ...Montreal Mining Co., Montreal.

"a. Yellow and variegated sulphuretes of copper, from the lode.

"b.

"C.

rough dressed. jigged.

"d. Rough waste from jigging on copper bottom sleeves.

"e. Plans of the mine, by Mr. C. H. Davie.

แ At the Bruce mines, a group of lodes traverses the location in a northwestward direction, intersecting a thick mass of interstratified greenstone trap. The strata here present an anticlinal form, the lodes running along the crown of it. All of the lodes contain more or less copper ore, which is disseminated in a gangue of quartz. The main lode, which is worked with another of about the same thickness, is, on an average, from two to four feet wide. In a careful examination made in 1848, about 3000 square fathoms of these lodes were computed to contain about 6 per cent. of copper. The quantity of ore obtained from the mine, since its opening in 1847, is stated to be about 9000 tons of eighteen per cent. The quantity obtained in 1861 was 472 tons of seventeen per cent. The deepest working is fifty fathoms from the surface. The number of men employed is thirty-four. Smelting furnaces, on the reverberatory principle, were erected at the mine in 1853; the fuel used in these was bituminous coal imported from Cleveland; but after a trial of three years, the Company themselves ceased smelting, and subsequently leased their smelting works to Mr. H. R. Fletcher. At present, the ores are in part sent to the Baltimore market, and in part to the United Kingdom.-Huronian."

We next give a few notes on marbles, a subject of great and increasing interest :

"1. Arnprior.....

Geological Survey.

"a. Striped light and dark grey marble, large pattern.

[merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small]

"At the mouth of the Madawaska, in McNab, a great extent of crystalline limestone is marked by grey bands, sometimes narrower, and sometimes wider, running in the direction of the original bedding, and producing, where there are no corrugations in the layers, a regularly barred or striped pattern. When the beds are wrinkled, there results a pattern something like that of a curly grained wood. The colours are various shades of dark and light grey, intermingled with white. These arise from a greater or less amount of graphite, which is intimately mixed with the limestone. The granular texture of the stone is somewhat coarse, but it takes a good polish, and gives a pleasing marble. Mr. W. Knowles has opened a quarry in limestone of this description at Arnprior, and erected a mill for the purpose of sawing and polishing it for chimney pieces, monuments and other objects. A monument of it has been erected in the Mount Royal cemetery.-Laurentian.

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small]

"d. Dove-grey marble, marked with white.

"The marbles, of which Mr. Cheeseman exhibits specimens, occur in great abundance in the immediate vicinity of Phillipsburg, on Lake Champlain. They are all easily cut, and take a good polish. Should a railway, which is projected between St. Johns and St. Albans, be carried into operation, it is probable there would be some demand for the stone. No quarries have been opened on any of the beds, and these specimens are taken from surfaces that have long been exposed to the influence of the weather.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian.

"6. St. Armand..

a. Black marble.

...

Geological Survey.

"About a mile and-a-half south-eastward from Phillipsburgh, there occurs a black marble, similar to this specimen. The beds dip to the eastward at an angle of about twelve degrees; a quarry was many years ago opened on one of them, which has a considerable thickness. The stone was exported to the United States, and much esteemed in New York, but the opening of quarries of black marble at Glen's Falls, where there is a great water-power, interfered with the demand, and caused the enterprise to be abandoned.-Quebec group, Lower Silurian."

Another most important product is roofing slate. What follows relates to the Walton Quarry. Specimens from other localities are exhibited by the geological survey.

1. Walton Quarry, Melbourne, lot 22, range 6....Benjamin Walton, Montreal. แ a. Specimens of roofing slate.

"This band of slate is in immediate contact with the summit of the serpentine. It has a breadth of one-third of a mile, and dips about S. E.<80°. Mr. Walton commenced opening a quarry upon it in 1860, and found it necessary, in order to gain access to the slate, to make a tunnel through a part of the serpentine. To complete this, and to expose a sufficient face in the slate to pursue profitable working, has required two years of time, and $30,000 of expenditure. The face now exposed has a height of seventy-five feet; but the band of slate crosses the St. Francis and the fall from the position where the quarry is now worked, to the level of the stream, is upwards of 400 feet, the distance being one and-a-half miles, so that by commencing an open cutting on the slate, at the level of the stream, a much greater exposure can be ultimately attained. Up to a comparatively recent period, the usual coverings of houses in Canada have been wooden shingles, galvanized iron or tin-plate, but so many destructive fires have occurred from the use of the first of these, that they are now interdicted in all large towns. Slate, as a covering, costs about onethird more than shingles, but one-half less than tin, and one-third less than galvanized iron.

"The quarry has now been in operation since the spring of 1861; 2000 squares have been sold, and some of the slates have been sent to a distance of 550 miles from the quarry; a quantity of them having been purchased for Sarnia on the River St. Clair. To show that slate, as a covering, is well adapted to resist the influences of a Canadian climate, it may be here stated that slates from Angers in France, have been exposed on the roof of the Seminary building on the corner of Notre Dame and St. François Xavier Streets, in Montreal, for upwards of 100 years, without any perceptible deterioration. The strong resemblance between these and the slates of Melbourne, as well as those from Bangor in Wales, may be seen in the following comparative analyses by Mr. T. Sterry Hunt:

[blocks in formation]

The proximity of the serpentine leaves no doubt as to the geological horizon of these slates.-Quebec Group, Lower Silurian.

These quotations will sufficiently illustrate the character of the information afforded. Its extent and variety can only be understood

by an examination of the work itself. The descriptive catalogue of a collection of the crystalline rocks of Canada is the work of T. Sterry Hunt, F.R.S. They are arranged as belonging-1st, to the Laurentian system; 2ndly, to the Huronian series; 3rdly, to the Silurian series; and 4thly, intrusive rocks-under each of which heads the particular substances are enumerated, with their localities and very valuable remarks. The whole work is a credit to the country, and a model in its class, as the fine collection of which it gives an account has secured universal admiration amidst the wonders of the Great Exhibition, and will direct the thoughts of many intelligent men to one portion of the varied riches of our country.

W. H.

TRANSLATIONS AND SELECTED ARTICLES.

RESEARCHES RESPECTING THE AFFINITIES OF STRUCTURE IN THE STEMS OF PLANTS BELONGING TO THE GROUP "CYCLOSPERMEÆ."

BY M. REGNAULT.

Translated from "Annales des Sciences Naturalles," IVeme Serie, Botanique, Tome xiv. No. 2, p. 73.

The knowledge of the principles upon which the classification of vegetables must be founded, obtained up to the close of the last century, has not merely led to a more methodical and more natural arrangement, but has given to all parts of the science a vigorous impulse, by clearly indicating the road which must be followed in further researches.

In truth, as the system was understood by its author, the natural classification of vegetables should be founded on the consideration of all the characters they furnish. Hence it might be justly said, that a perfect classification would in a manner represent the whole science,

* Our translation includes only the introductory remarks of the learned author, which contain important general principles. His detailed observations, though highly interesting and valuable, our space will at present only permit us to refer to.

« ПредыдущаяПродолжить »