A mass of fragments of trees, all converted into stone, and when
      struck by his horse’s hoof ringing like cast iron, is seen to
      extend itself for miles and miles around him, in the form of a
      decayed and prostrate forest. The wood is of a dark brown hue,
      but retains its form in perfection, the pieces being from one to
      fifteen feet in length, and from half a foot to three feet in
      thickness, strewed so closely together, as far as the eye can
      reach, that an Egyptian donkey can scarcely thread its way
      through amongst them, and so natural that, were it in Scotland or
      Ireland, it might pass without remark for some enormous drained
      bog, on which the exhumed trees lay rotting in the sun. The roots
      and rudiments of the branches are, in many cases, nearly perfect,
      and in some the worm-holes eaten under the bark are readily
      recognizable. The most delicate of the sap vessels, and all the
      finer portions of the centre of the wood, are perfectly entire,
      and bear to be examined with the strongest magnifiers. The whole
      are so thoroughly silicified as to scratch glass and are capable
      of receiving the highest polish.— _Asiatic Magazine_. (*3) The Mammoth Cave of Kentucky. (*4) In Iceland, 1783. (*5) “During the eruption of Hecla, in 1766, clouds of this kind
      produced such a degree of darkness that, at Glaumba, which is
      more than fifty leagues from the mountain, people could only find
      their way by groping. During the eruption of Vesuvius, in 1794,
      at Caserta, four leagues distant, people could only walk by the
      light of torches. On the first of May, 1812, a cloud of volcanic
      ashes and sand, coming from a volcano in the island of St.
      Vincent, covered the whole of Barbadoes, spreading over it so
      intense a darkness that, at mid-day, in the open air, one could
      not perceive the trees or other objects near him, or even a white
      handkerchief placed at the distance of six inches from the
      eye._“—Murray, p. 215, Phil. edit._

      (*6) In the year 1790, in the Caraccas during an earthquake a
      portion of the granite soil sank and left a lake eight hundred
      yards in diameter, and from eighty to a hundred feet deep. It was
      a part of the forest of Aripao which sank, and the trees remained
      green for several months under the water.”—_Murray_, p. 221

      (*7) The hardest steel ever manufactured may, under the action of
      a blowpipe, be reduced to an impalpable powder, which will float
      readily in the atmospheric air. (*8) The region of the Niger. See Simmona’s _Colonial Magazine_. (*9) The _Myrmeleon_—lion-ant. The term “monster” is equally
      applicable to small abnormal things and to great, while such
      epithets as “vast” are merely comparative. The cavern of the
      myrmeleon is vast in comparison with the hole of the common red
      ant. A grain of silex is also a “rock.”

      (*10) The _Epidendron, Flos Aeris,_ of the family of the
      _Orchideae_, grows with merely the surface of its roots attached
      to a tree or other object, from which it derives no
      nutriment—subsisting altogether upon air. (*11) The _Parasites,_ such as the wonderful _Rafflesia
      Arnaldii_. (*12) _Schouw_ advocates a class of plants that grow upon living
      animals—the _Plantae_ _Epizoae_. Of this class are the _Fuci_ and
      _Algae_. _Mr. J. B. Williams, of Salem, Mass._, presented the “National
      Institute” with an insect from New Zealand, with the following
      description: “‘_The Hotte_, a decided caterpillar, or worm, is
      found gnawing at the root of the _Rota_ tree, with a plant
      growing out of its head. This most peculiar and extraordinary
      insect travels up both the _Rota_ and _Ferriri_ trees, and
      entering into the top, eats its way, perforating the trunk of the
      trees until it reaches the root, and dies, or remains dormant,
      and the plant propagates out of its head; the body remains
      perfect and entire, of a harder substance than when alive. From
      this insect the natives make a coloring for tattooing. (*13) In mines and natural caves we find a species of
      cryptogamous _fungus_ that emits an intense phosphorescence. (*14) The orchis, scabius and valisneria. (*15) The corolla of this flower (_Aristolochia Clematitis_),
      which is tubular, but terminating upwards in a ligulate limb, is
      inflated into a globular figure at the base. The tubular part is
      internally beset with stiff hairs, pointing downwards. The
      globular part contains the pistil, which consists merely of a
      germen and stigma, together with the surrounding stamens. But the
      stamens, being shorter than the germen, cannot discharge the
      pollen so as to throw it upon the stigma, as the flower stands
      always upright till after impregnation. And hence, without some
      additional and peculiar aid, the pollen must necessarily fan down
      to the bottom of the flower. Now, the aid that nature has
      furnished in this case, is that of the _Tiputa Pennicornis_, a
      small insect, which entering the tube of the corrolla in quest of
      honey, descends to the bottom, and rummages about till it becomes
      quite covered with pollen; but not being able to force its way
      out again, owing to the downward position of the hairs, which
      converge to a point like the wires of a mouse-trap, and being
      somewhat impatient of its confinement it brushes backwards and
      forwards, trying every corner, till, after repeatedly traversing
      the stigma, it covers it with pollen sufficient for its
      impregnation, in consequence of which the flower soon begins to
      droop, and the hairs to shrink to the sides of the tube,
      effecting an easy passage for the escape of the insect.”—_Rev. P.
      Keith-System of Physiological Botany_. (*16) The bees—ever since bees were—have been constructing their
      cells with just such sides, in just such number, and at just such
      inclinations, as it has been demonstrated (in a problem involving
      the profoundest mathematical principles) are the very sides, in
      the very number, and at the very angles, which will afford the
      creatures the most room that is compatible with the greatest
      stability of structure. During the latter part of the last century, the question arose
      among mathematicians—“to determine the best form that can be
      given to the sails of a windmill, according to their varying
      distances from the revolving vanes, and likewise from the centres
      of the revolution.” This is an excessively complex problem, for
      it is, in other words, to find the best possible position at an
      infinity of varied distances and at an infinity of points on the
      arm.