GLOSSARY OF SCIENTIFIC TERMS.
Accretion.Increase of size or growth by the mechanical addition of new particles.Aclinic Line.The magnetic equator.Acotyledonous.Plants having no seed-lobes. Mosses and ferns belong to this division, and most of the coal plants are acotyledonous.Actynolite.A green mineral found chiefly in primitive formations often crystallized in six sided prisms.Aerolites.Stones which appear to have fallen from the higher parts of the atmosphere. They are sometimes called Meteorites.Algæ.A division of plants including the common sea-weeds.Aluminous.Containing alumina, or rather silicate of alumina, which is the base of pure clay. Thus, aluminous meansclayey. The word is, however, sometimes used in the sense of containingalum, a sulphate of alumina and potash.Ammonite.A fossil genus of many-chambered shells allied to the Nautilus, named from their resemblance to the horns on the statues of Jupiter Ammon.Amorphous.Without regular form.Amorphozoa.Animals without definite form—sponges.Amygdaloid.Almond-shaped. Any rock is called by this name which contains rounded or elongated minerals imbedded in some simple mineral or base.Amygdaloidal(in mineralogy). A conglomerate.Analcimeis found in granite and gneiss rock—generally in cubes of various colors.Ananchytes.A genus of fossil echini or sea-urchins—in the chalk, &c.Anchylosis.(Gr., crooked), a joint is said to be anchylosed, when so diseased as to become, or when it becomes, stiff or immovable.Annelidæ.(Annulus, a ring)—Lamarck’s worm-shaped animals, as Serpula, vermilia, &c.Anoplotherium.The name given to a characteristic genus of a group of extinct quadrupeds found fossil in the older Tertiary deposits, and nearly allied to the tapir and pig.Anticlinal.OrAnticlinal axis. A saddle-shaped position of rocks, the result of disturbance.Apiocrinite.Pear-shaped crinoidea—lily-shaped animals.Aqueous.That which is dependent on water. Aqueous rocks are those produced by deposit from water.Arborescent.Branching like a tree.Arenaceous.Sandy.Argentiferous.Containing silver.Argillaceous.Clayey.Articulata.A natural division of animals having their limbs articulated or jointed together, like the lobster.Asaphus.An obscure genus of trilobites.Asbestus.A fibrous mineral of which an incombustible cloth is sometimes made.Asterolepis.(Gr., star scale). It is the largest fish yet found in theOld Red Sandstone.Augite.(Gr., luster)—a mineral.Basalt.An igneous rock, often columnar and supposed to be ancient volcanic lava. It is the most common of the group calledTrap-rocks.BedorStratum. A layer of material the whole of which exhibits some common character.Belemnite.A dart-shaped shell, probably the ancient representative of some of our cuttle-fish. The shell is conical and chambered.Bellerophon.A small chambered-shell like the Nautilus.Botryoidal(in Mineralogy). Clustered like a bunch of grapes.Brachiopoda.A group of shell-bearing animals having two long spiral arms serving to assist in locomotion and for other purposes.Brevipennate.Short-winged.Cælacanthus.A fish of the Devonian formation.Calamite.A fossil from the coal-measures resembling a gigantic reed.Calamus.A fossil reed-like plant.Calcaire grossier.A coarse limestone of the Older Tertiary period, found in the Paris basin.Calcaire siliceux.A compact silicious limestone sometimes replacing the calcaire grossier.Calcareous.Containing lime.Cambrian.Belonging to Wales. The “Cambrian system” in Geology, is a name suggested by Professor Sedgwick, to designate part of the Silurian series of North Wales.Carapace.The upper shell of reptiles.Carboniferous.Containing carbon.Carnivorous.Flesh-eating. The “Carnivora” in Zoology consist of a group of animals eminently carnivorous.Caudal.Connected with the tail.Cephalopoda.A group of animals of which the Nautilus and Cuttlefish are examples, having the locomotive apparatus immediately over the head and stomach.Cephalaspis(Buckler-head). A fish.Cestracion.A fish, a genus of an extinct family of sharks.Cetaceans.The whale tribe.Chalcedony.A silicious mineral, like Cornelian.Chalybeate.Water holding iron in solution.Chara,Characidæ. An aquatic plant fossilized.Cheirolepis(Thorny scale). A fossil fish.Chelonia.Sea tortoise.Chert.A silicious mineral, resembling common flint, but of coarser texture.Chœropotamus.An extinct quadruped found in the Eocene of England.Cheiracanthus(thorny hand). A fish of the Old Red Sandstone.Cirrhipeda(hair feet). Balanus-Coronula; Anatifa are of this family.Clinometer.An instrument for measuring the dip and determining the strike of beds or strata.Coal-measures.The whole group of deposits, consisting chiefly of sands and shales, with which coal is usually found.Coccosteus.(Gr., berry on bone)—a Ganoid fish.Coleoptera.Beetles whose wings are covered with a hard sheath.Columnar.Arranged in columns.Conchifera.One of the great divisions of Conchology.Conchoidal.Resembling a shell. Used in Mineralogy to designate a particular kind of fracture.Condyle.A knob at the end of a bone, a joint.Conformable.When the planes of bedding of two successive beds or strata are parallel to each other they are said to beconformable; when not parallel they areunconformable.Congeners.Species belonging to the same genus.ConglomerateorPuddingstone. A rock made up of rounded water-worn fragments of rock or pebbles cemented together by another mineral substance.Coniferæ.Trees that bear cones, as the pine.Coprolite.The fossil remains of excrement.Cosmical.Relating to the universe.Cosmogony.The word formerly applied to speculations concerning the earth’s age and history.Cotyledonous.Plants whose seeds have but one lobe.Crag.The name given to certain Tertiary deposits in Norfolk and Suffolk.Cretaceous.Belonging to the chalk.Crinoid.Belonging to the encrinite family.Cropping out.Theout-cropof a bed is its first appearance at the surface.Crustaceans.Belonging to the crab or lobster family, &c.Cryptogamous.Plants without apparent flowers.Crystal.The regular form in which a mineral is presented when that form can be described mathematically. A mineral is said to becrystallinewhen its atoms are arranged with reference to some definite form.Ctenacanthus.Belonging to the Placoids.Ctenoids.Fishes with comb-shaped scales.Ctenoptychius.A fish of the chalk formation.Culm.An impure kind of coal.Cumbrian.Occurring in Cumberland. The “Cumbrian System” of Prof. Sedgwick is a part of the Silurian series of the Lake district of Cumberland and Westmoreland.Cycadeæ.Fossil plants of the coal-measures.Cyclas.A small bivalve shell recent and fossil.Cycloid.Marginated scales.Debris.The fragments of rocks removed by the action of weathering or by water.Decorticated.Stripped of bark.Deflection.Deviation from a straight course.Degradation.The wearing away of rocks, generally effected by aqueous action.Deliquescent.Becoming fluid by the attraction of water from the atmosphere.Delta.The alluvial land formed by a river at its mouth, usually expanded in a fan shape like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ), and thence calledDelta.Denudation.The act of laying bare rocks formerly covered up, the removal of the overlying masses being effected by water.Dermal.Belonging to the skin.Detritus.Matter rubbed off by mechanical action from other rocks.Diallage.A mineral.Didelphys.A pouched animal, as the Opossum.Dinosauria.Land lizards—only found fossil.Dip(in Geology). The angle of inclination which the plane of a bed makes with the plane of the horizon.Diplopterus,Diplodus, andDiplocanthus. Fishes of the Devonian or Old red sandstone.Dipterus(having two wings). A fish of the Old red sandstone.Dodo.A large bird once found in the Isle of France, but now extinct.Dolomite.Crystalline carbonate of lime and magnesia.Dyke.A rock, generally crystalline, occupying a rent or fissure in some other and older rock. A dyke differs from a mineral vein chiefly in its greater magnitude and in the absence of ramifications.Dynamics(Gr., power). Used in mechanics.Echinodermata.Having a skin like a hedgehog.Efflorescence.The term used to describe the falling to powder of certain minerals on exposure.Embouchure.The mouth of a great river.Enaliosauria,PlesiosaurusandPliosaurus. Marine Saurians, as the Ichthyosaurus.Encrinite.Stone lily.Endogenous.Plants that increase from within, as lilies, grasses, and among trees, palms.Entomostracea.One of Cuvier’s sections of Crustaceans.Eocene.The name given by Sir C. Lyell to the lowest and oldest division of the Tertiary series of rocks.Equisetum.A plant, fossil and recent.Escarpment.The steep face of a mountain chain or a ridge of high land.Exogenous.Plants which increase their wood by external additions or rings of growth.Exuviæ.A name sometimes given to all fossil remains found in the earth’s crust.Fauna.The whole group of animals peculiar to a country or natural region at some one period.Feldspar.A hard silicious rock.Ferruginous.Irony, or containing iron.Fern.(Lat., Felices), a class of cryptogamous plants.Fissile.Capable of being split asunder.Flustra.A parasitic zoophyte or polyparia, which covers sea-weeds and shells.Fæcal sediment.Dregs, excrement.Foraminifera.The name given to a group of many-chambered shells, generally microscopic, the chambers communicating by a small open orifice (foramen).Fossil.A word originally applied to all substances dug out of the earth, including therefore all minerals, but now limited in its application to the remains of organic beings, whether vegetable or animal, buried beneath the surface.Fossiliferous.Containing fossils or organic remains.Frith.A deep and comparatively narrow arm of the sea.Fronds.The leaf of a fern is called a frond.Fucoid.That which resembles afucus, or seaweed:—fossil remains of fuci are called fucoids.Fusiform.Spindle-shaped.Galena.Sulphuret of lead.Ganoid.A group of fishes having enameled scales.Gasteropoda.A group of shell-bearing animals covered by one valve, and having a fleshy foot attached to the belly.Gault.A bluish clay underlying the Chalk and Upper green sand in England.Gavial.A species of shark found in the Ganges.Geodes(in mineralogy) a round hollow stone whose cavity is usually filled with crystals.Glacis.A gently sloping bank.Glyptolepis.(Gr., carved scale.)Glyptopomus.A Devonian fossil fish.Gneiss.The name given to mixtures of quartz, feldspar, and mica, in which there is a laminated arrangement of the different ingredients.Goniatites.Chambered fossil shells.Granite.A rock consisting generally of crystals of feldspar and mica imbedded in a quartzy base.Graminæ.Grasses.GraptolitesorSea-Pens. Fossils of the lower Silurian system.GrauwackeorGraywacke. The name given by German geologists to some of the older fossiliferous rocks, and generally of a gray color, sandy composition, and fissile nature.Gryphiæ.Fossil bivalve shells found in the Lias, &c.Habitat.The natural district to which a species of animals or vegetables is confined in its distribution.Hexahedral.Having six equal sides.Heterocercal.Applied to the tail of a fish, means that the upper lobe extends farther than the under.Heteropoda.An order of univalve molluscs, whose feet form a kind of fin.Holoptychius.A Ganoid fish of the coal-measures.Hornblende.An important mineral in the composition of some rocks.Homocercal.Applied to fishes having equal lobed tails.Hornstone.A variety of quartz found in volcanic districts.Hyaline.Transparent like glass.Hybodentes.Fossil fish.Hylæosaurus.Fossil lizard of the Wealden.Hypersthene.A mineral.Hypogene Rocks.Rocks formed beneath others or which are assumed to have obtained their present aspect underneath the earth’s surface.Ichthyodorulite.The fossil spine of certain fishes resembling sharks.Ichthyolites.Fragments of the bones of fossil fishes.Ichthyology.The study and description of fishes.Ichthyosaurus.A marine reptile (fish-lizard), whose remains are very abundant in rocks of the Secondary period.Igneous rocks.Rocks, such as lava, trap, and some others which have been fused by volcanic heat.—Graniteand other porphyritic rocks are sometimes called crystalline.Ignigenous.Produced by fire.Iguanodon.Extinct gigantic lizard.Imbricated.Covered with scales overlapping each other like tiles on the roof of a house.Inoceramus.A bivalve of the chalk formation.Inorganic.Not produced by vital action.Invertebrata.Animals not furnished with a back bone.Juncus(in botany). A rush.Lacertians.Lizards.Lacustrine.Belonging to a lake.Lagoon.A salt-water lake, or part of a sea nearly inclosed by a strip of land.Laminated.Arranged in thin plates orlaminæ.Lenticular.Lens-shaped.Lepidoides.Extinct fish of the Oolite formation.Llandeilo flags.A division of the lower silurian formation of Murchison.Lias.A provincial name now generally adopted to designate the calcareous clay or clayey limestone occurring between the Upper new red sandstone and the Oolite.Ligneous.Woody.Lignite.Wood converted into an imperfect kind of coal.Lithology(lithos, a stone; logos, a discourse). Description of stones.Littoral.Belonging to the shore.Lophiodon.A fossil animal allied to the tapir.Lycopodium.A cryptogamous plant.Macauco.A four-handed animal allied to the Ape family.Mammalia.Animals that suckle their young.Marl.A mixture of clay and lime.Marsupial.An animal having a pouch, as the kangaroo.Mastodon.A gigantic extinct quadruped resembling the elephant.Matrix.The earthy or stony matter in which a mineral or fossil is imbedded.Mechanical Rocks.Rocks formed by deposition from water.Megalosaurus.A gigantic extinct lizard.Megalichthys.Megas, great; ichthus, fish.Metamorphic Rocks.Rocks that have undergone change or metamorphosis since their original formation.Metatarsal.The part of the foot between the ankle and toes.Meteorology.The science of the phenomena of the atmosphere.Mica slate.Is the lowest stratified rock except gneiss—it is unfossiliferous.Miocene.The middle of the three divisions of tertiary rocks, according to Sir C. Lyell.Molasse.A provincial name for a sandstone associated with marl and conglomerates, found abundantly in the great valley of Switzerland. It belongs to the middle tertiary period.Molecules.The ultimate particles or atoms of bodies.Mollusca.A division in Conchology.Monomyaria.Bivalve shells having but one adductor muscle.Moraine.A Swiss term for the débris of rocks brought down into valleys by glaciers.Myricaciæ.Plants of the Gale family.Mytilus.A marine shell, the mussel.Neuropteris.A fossil fern of the coal-measures.Nodule.A rounded irregular-shaped mass.Nucleus.The solid center, about which matter is often collected to form solids.Nummulites.A group of foraminiferous shells, some of them of large size and very abundant, occurring in rocks chiefly of the oldest tertiary period.Oolite.A limestone composed of rounded particles, like the roe of a fish. The nameOoliticis applied to a considerable group of deposits in which this limestone occurs.Organic.Exhibiting organization, or the results of vital force.Organic remains, orfossils, are the remains of the animals and vegetables of a former state of existence found buried in rocks.Ornithic.Relating to birds.Ornithorhynchus.A singular animal, found in New Holland, called also the water-mole.Orthocera.A straight-chambered shell of the Silurian formation.Osseous.Bony:Osseous brecciais a conglomerate made up of bones cemented together by lime, and mixed with earthy matter.Osteolepis(bone-scale). A fish of the Old red sandstone.Osteological.Relating to bones.Outcrop.The line at which a stratum first shows itself at the surface in inclined deposits.Oviparous.Egg-laying animals.Pachydermata.A group of animals so called from the thickness of their skin. The elephant and pig are well known examples.Palæoniscus.A fossil fish of the Magnesian limestone of England.Palæontology.The science which treats of fossil organic remains; it is the zoology and botany of the ancient conditions of the earth.Palæotherium.A genus of Pachydermata allied to the Tapir.Pecopteris.A fern of the coal-measures.Pelagian.Belonging to the sea.Pentacrinite.A stone lily with five-sided foot-stalk.Petroleum.Mineral pitch.Phænogamous, orPhanerogamic plants. Those in which the reproductive organs are apparent.Phryganea.A family of insects which breed in water.Phyllolepis.Leaf-scale.Physical.Literallynatural, but used in scientific language in treating of the higher and wider views of various departments with reference to the whole external world, and not to mere human objects.Phytology.The department of Natural History which relates to plants. Botany.Placoid.A group of fishes, so called from the structure of their scales.Planorbis.A fresh water univalve. Fossil and recent.Platygnathus.(Greek; platus, wide, and gnathos, jaw or mouth.)Plesiosaurus.An extinct genus of reptiles.Pliocene, Older and Newer.The upper part of the Tertiary series, so called by Sir C. Lyell from the preponderance of recent shells in them.Plumbago(Black lead). The name commonly given tographite, a form of carbon.Plutonic rocks.Rocks supposed to be due to igneous action at great depths below the earth’s surface, have been thus named by older geologists. The igneous action is not manifest in such rocks, but presumed, as in the case of granite.Polyparia.A group of animals of which thecoral animalis a well known example.Porcellia.The papaw, a plant now called asimina.Porphyry.Any rock having crystals imbedded in a base of other mineral composition. Thus granite is a porphyritic rock, having crystals of feldspar and mica imbedded in a quartz base.Predaceus.Preying upon other animals.Prehnite.A mineral.Primary, orPrimitive. This name is commonly applied to the rocks which underlie those that are manifestly of mechanical origin and contain fossils.Prodectus.A bivalve shell.Pterichthys.(Winged fish.) A fossil of the Old red sandstone.Pterodactyl.A remarkable genus of reptiles adapted for flight; its remains have been found in a fossil state throughout the Secondary rocks.Pteropoda.Marine animals having wing-like fins.Pudding stone.The name often given to coarse conglomerates in which the fragments or pebbles are rounded.Pyrites.A name given to the combinations of certain metals with sulphur.Qua-qua-versal.The dip of beds in every direction from an elevated central point. The beds on the flanks of a volcanic cone dip in this way.Quartz.The common form of silica; rock-crystal and flint are examples.Raceme(in botany). When the florets are arranged along the sides of a general peduncle.Radiata.A division of the animal kingdom so called because the body is frequently presented in a radiated form like the common star-fish.Reticulated.A structure of crossed fibers, like a net, is said to be reticulated.Rock(in Geology). Any mass of mineral matter of considerable or indefinite extent and nearly uniform character, is called in geological language a rock, without regard to its hardness or compactness: thus, loose sand and clay, as well as sandstone and limestone, are spoken of under this name.Rock salt.Common salt occurring in a crystalline state in rocks.Roe-stone.The name sometimes given toOolite.Ruminantia.An important group of quadrupeds including those which chew the cud, as the ox, deer, &c.Saccharoid.Having the texture of loaf sugar.Saliferous system.The new red sandstone system, so called from the salt with which it is associated in parts of England.Saurian(reptilian). Any animal of the lizard tribe, and many extinct reptiles only distantly allied to these.Sauroids.Marine fishes resembling lizards.Salmonoides.Resembling the salmon.Schist.A name often used as synonymous with slate, but more commonly, and very conveniently, limited to those rocks which do not admit of indefinite splitting, like slate, but are only capable of a less perfect separation into layers or laminæ. Of this kind are gneiss, mica-schist, &c., often more or less crystalline.Scirpus(in Botany). A rush.Scoriæ.The name given to volcanic ashes. The word means any kind of cinders, but its scientific use is thus limited.Shale.An indurated clay, less fissile than schist, but splitting with tolerable facility in plates parallel to each other, and to the original planes of bedding.Shell marl.A deposit of clay, peat, and silt, mixed with shells, which collects at the bottom of fresh-water lakes.Serpula(in Conchology). A worm-like marine shell.Serrated.Having points like a saw.Sigillaria.Fossil plants found in the coal-measures.Silex,Silica. The name given by Mineralogists to a pure earth, more commonly spoken of asflint, and, when crystallized, called rock-crystal.Silt.The name usually given to the muddy deposit found at the bottom of running streams.Silurian.The name given by Sir R. Murchison to an important series of fossiliferous rocks well developed in, and first described from, a district in Wales and Shropshire formerly inhabited by theSiluri, a tribe of Ancient Britons.Siphuncle.A small tube passing through an orifice in the septum of a chambered shell.Sphenopteris.Fossilfern (leaf wedge-shaped).Spheroid.Having a shape nearly resembling that of a sphere or globe.Spirifer.An extinct bivalve.StalactiteandStalagmite. Concretions of carbonate of lime and sometimes of other minerals, as quartz or even malachite, deposited by water dropping from the roof of a cavern or other vacant space.Steatite.Soapstone.Stigmaria.A coal fossil, an aquatic plant.Stratification.The condition of rocks or accumulated minerals deposited in layers, beds, orstrata.Strike.The line of bearing of strata, or the direction of any horizontal line on a stratum.Superposition.An expression very commonly employed by Geologists to describe the order of arrangementwhen one bed or stratum reposes upon another.Supra-cretaceous.A term applied by Sir H. de la Bèche to rocks overlying the chalk. The term Tertiary is now universally adopted for this group.Syenite.The granite of the quarries of Syene in Egypt. It is usual to call by this name any combination of quartz, feldspar, and hornblende.Synclinal axis.The line of depression between two anticlinal axes.Syncondrosis.Connection of bones by cartilage.Terebratula.A fossil shell.Tertiary strata.The series of sedimentary rocks overlying the chalk, or other representative of the Secondary period, and extending thence to the rocks of the Recent period.Testacea.Molluscous or soft animals having a shelly covering.Thecodont.A fossil saurian or marine lizard.Thermal.Hot.Thermal Springsare springs whose temperature is above the mean annual temperature of the place where they break out.Tetrapterous.Four-winged.Tibia.The principal bone of the leg.Toad-stone.The name given by miners to beds of basalt, occurring in Derbyshire.Trachyte.A feldspathic variety of lava.Trap.Crystalline rocks, composed chiefly of feldspar, augite and hornblende, combined in many ways, and exhibiting great varieties of aspect, are frequently called by this name.Trias.The name given on the continent to the beds of the New red sandstone series.Trilobite.A common fossil in the Dudley limestone, so named from the characteristic species having the body divided into three lobes. Trilobites are the remains of a remarkable extinct family of Crustaceans, of which the crab, lobster, &c., are modern representatives.Trionyx.A genus of tortoise, having three claws.Tufaceous,Tuff. An Italian name for a variety of volcanic rock of earthy texture, and made up chiefly or entirely of fragments of volcanic ashes.Turbinated.Shells which have a spiral or screw-like structure are thus named.Unconformable superposition(instratification). The condition of strata when one has been deposited horizontally upon the upturned edges of those immediately below.Unio.Fresh water bivalve.Vertebrata, or Vertebrated Animals. A large and most important division of the animal kingdom, including all those animals provided with a back bone. Each separate bone of the back is called avertebra.Vertex.The summit or upper part of a solid.Vitreous.Glassy. Used in Mineralogy to designate a peculiar luster.Viviparous.Bearing young alive.Warp.The deposit of muddy waters.Wealden.The name given to an important fresh-water formation, occurring between the Cretaceous and Oolitic rocks, chiefly in the Wealds of Kent and Sussex.Whin-stone.A provincial term applied to some trap rocks.Zamia.A plant allied to the palm, plentiful east of the Cape of Good Hope.Zeolite.A group of minerals which swell and boil up when exposed to the blow-pipe flame.Zoophyte.The term applied to some animals of low organization, which, during the greater part of their lives, are attached to some foreign substance, and are incapable of locomotion.
Accretion.Increase of size or growth by the mechanical addition of new particles.
Aclinic Line.The magnetic equator.
Acotyledonous.Plants having no seed-lobes. Mosses and ferns belong to this division, and most of the coal plants are acotyledonous.
Actynolite.A green mineral found chiefly in primitive formations often crystallized in six sided prisms.
Aerolites.Stones which appear to have fallen from the higher parts of the atmosphere. They are sometimes called Meteorites.
Algæ.A division of plants including the common sea-weeds.
Aluminous.Containing alumina, or rather silicate of alumina, which is the base of pure clay. Thus, aluminous meansclayey. The word is, however, sometimes used in the sense of containingalum, a sulphate of alumina and potash.
Ammonite.A fossil genus of many-chambered shells allied to the Nautilus, named from their resemblance to the horns on the statues of Jupiter Ammon.
Amorphous.Without regular form.
Amorphozoa.Animals without definite form—sponges.
Amygdaloid.Almond-shaped. Any rock is called by this name which contains rounded or elongated minerals imbedded in some simple mineral or base.
Amygdaloidal(in mineralogy). A conglomerate.
Analcimeis found in granite and gneiss rock—generally in cubes of various colors.
Ananchytes.A genus of fossil echini or sea-urchins—in the chalk, &c.
Anchylosis.(Gr., crooked), a joint is said to be anchylosed, when so diseased as to become, or when it becomes, stiff or immovable.
Annelidæ.(Annulus, a ring)—Lamarck’s worm-shaped animals, as Serpula, vermilia, &c.
Anoplotherium.The name given to a characteristic genus of a group of extinct quadrupeds found fossil in the older Tertiary deposits, and nearly allied to the tapir and pig.
Anticlinal.OrAnticlinal axis. A saddle-shaped position of rocks, the result of disturbance.
Apiocrinite.Pear-shaped crinoidea—lily-shaped animals.
Aqueous.That which is dependent on water. Aqueous rocks are those produced by deposit from water.
Arborescent.Branching like a tree.
Arenaceous.Sandy.
Argentiferous.Containing silver.
Argillaceous.Clayey.
Articulata.A natural division of animals having their limbs articulated or jointed together, like the lobster.
Asaphus.An obscure genus of trilobites.
Asbestus.A fibrous mineral of which an incombustible cloth is sometimes made.
Asterolepis.(Gr., star scale). It is the largest fish yet found in theOld Red Sandstone.
Augite.(Gr., luster)—a mineral.
Basalt.An igneous rock, often columnar and supposed to be ancient volcanic lava. It is the most common of the group calledTrap-rocks.
BedorStratum. A layer of material the whole of which exhibits some common character.
Belemnite.A dart-shaped shell, probably the ancient representative of some of our cuttle-fish. The shell is conical and chambered.
Bellerophon.A small chambered-shell like the Nautilus.
Botryoidal(in Mineralogy). Clustered like a bunch of grapes.
Brachiopoda.A group of shell-bearing animals having two long spiral arms serving to assist in locomotion and for other purposes.
Brevipennate.Short-winged.
Cælacanthus.A fish of the Devonian formation.
Calamite.A fossil from the coal-measures resembling a gigantic reed.
Calamus.A fossil reed-like plant.
Calcaire grossier.A coarse limestone of the Older Tertiary period, found in the Paris basin.
Calcaire siliceux.A compact silicious limestone sometimes replacing the calcaire grossier.
Calcareous.Containing lime.
Cambrian.Belonging to Wales. The “Cambrian system” in Geology, is a name suggested by Professor Sedgwick, to designate part of the Silurian series of North Wales.
Carapace.The upper shell of reptiles.
Carboniferous.Containing carbon.
Carnivorous.Flesh-eating. The “Carnivora” in Zoology consist of a group of animals eminently carnivorous.
Caudal.Connected with the tail.
Cephalopoda.A group of animals of which the Nautilus and Cuttlefish are examples, having the locomotive apparatus immediately over the head and stomach.
Cephalaspis(Buckler-head). A fish.
Cestracion.A fish, a genus of an extinct family of sharks.
Cetaceans.The whale tribe.
Chalcedony.A silicious mineral, like Cornelian.
Chalybeate.Water holding iron in solution.
Chara,Characidæ. An aquatic plant fossilized.
Cheirolepis(Thorny scale). A fossil fish.
Chelonia.Sea tortoise.
Chert.A silicious mineral, resembling common flint, but of coarser texture.
Chœropotamus.An extinct quadruped found in the Eocene of England.
Cheiracanthus(thorny hand). A fish of the Old Red Sandstone.
Cirrhipeda(hair feet). Balanus-Coronula; Anatifa are of this family.
Clinometer.An instrument for measuring the dip and determining the strike of beds or strata.
Coal-measures.The whole group of deposits, consisting chiefly of sands and shales, with which coal is usually found.
Coccosteus.(Gr., berry on bone)—a Ganoid fish.
Coleoptera.Beetles whose wings are covered with a hard sheath.
Columnar.Arranged in columns.
Conchifera.One of the great divisions of Conchology.
Conchoidal.Resembling a shell. Used in Mineralogy to designate a particular kind of fracture.
Condyle.A knob at the end of a bone, a joint.
Conformable.When the planes of bedding of two successive beds or strata are parallel to each other they are said to beconformable; when not parallel they areunconformable.
Congeners.Species belonging to the same genus.
ConglomerateorPuddingstone. A rock made up of rounded water-worn fragments of rock or pebbles cemented together by another mineral substance.
Coniferæ.Trees that bear cones, as the pine.
Coprolite.The fossil remains of excrement.
Cosmical.Relating to the universe.
Cosmogony.The word formerly applied to speculations concerning the earth’s age and history.
Cotyledonous.Plants whose seeds have but one lobe.
Crag.The name given to certain Tertiary deposits in Norfolk and Suffolk.
Cretaceous.Belonging to the chalk.
Crinoid.Belonging to the encrinite family.
Cropping out.Theout-cropof a bed is its first appearance at the surface.
Crustaceans.Belonging to the crab or lobster family, &c.
Cryptogamous.Plants without apparent flowers.
Crystal.The regular form in which a mineral is presented when that form can be described mathematically. A mineral is said to becrystallinewhen its atoms are arranged with reference to some definite form.
Ctenacanthus.Belonging to the Placoids.
Ctenoids.Fishes with comb-shaped scales.
Ctenoptychius.A fish of the chalk formation.
Culm.An impure kind of coal.
Cumbrian.Occurring in Cumberland. The “Cumbrian System” of Prof. Sedgwick is a part of the Silurian series of the Lake district of Cumberland and Westmoreland.
Cycadeæ.Fossil plants of the coal-measures.
Cyclas.A small bivalve shell recent and fossil.
Cycloid.Marginated scales.
Debris.The fragments of rocks removed by the action of weathering or by water.
Decorticated.Stripped of bark.
Deflection.Deviation from a straight course.
Degradation.The wearing away of rocks, generally effected by aqueous action.
Deliquescent.Becoming fluid by the attraction of water from the atmosphere.
Delta.The alluvial land formed by a river at its mouth, usually expanded in a fan shape like the fourth letter of the Greek alphabet (Δ), and thence calledDelta.
Denudation.The act of laying bare rocks formerly covered up, the removal of the overlying masses being effected by water.
Dermal.Belonging to the skin.
Detritus.Matter rubbed off by mechanical action from other rocks.
Diallage.A mineral.
Didelphys.A pouched animal, as the Opossum.
Dinosauria.Land lizards—only found fossil.
Dip(in Geology). The angle of inclination which the plane of a bed makes with the plane of the horizon.
Diplopterus,Diplodus, andDiplocanthus. Fishes of the Devonian or Old red sandstone.
Dipterus(having two wings). A fish of the Old red sandstone.
Dodo.A large bird once found in the Isle of France, but now extinct.
Dolomite.Crystalline carbonate of lime and magnesia.
Dyke.A rock, generally crystalline, occupying a rent or fissure in some other and older rock. A dyke differs from a mineral vein chiefly in its greater magnitude and in the absence of ramifications.
Dynamics(Gr., power). Used in mechanics.
Echinodermata.Having a skin like a hedgehog.
Efflorescence.The term used to describe the falling to powder of certain minerals on exposure.
Embouchure.The mouth of a great river.
Enaliosauria,PlesiosaurusandPliosaurus. Marine Saurians, as the Ichthyosaurus.
Encrinite.Stone lily.
Endogenous.Plants that increase from within, as lilies, grasses, and among trees, palms.
Entomostracea.One of Cuvier’s sections of Crustaceans.
Eocene.The name given by Sir C. Lyell to the lowest and oldest division of the Tertiary series of rocks.
Equisetum.A plant, fossil and recent.
Escarpment.The steep face of a mountain chain or a ridge of high land.
Exogenous.Plants which increase their wood by external additions or rings of growth.
Exuviæ.A name sometimes given to all fossil remains found in the earth’s crust.
Fauna.The whole group of animals peculiar to a country or natural region at some one period.
Feldspar.A hard silicious rock.
Ferruginous.Irony, or containing iron.
Fern.(Lat., Felices), a class of cryptogamous plants.
Fissile.Capable of being split asunder.
Flustra.A parasitic zoophyte or polyparia, which covers sea-weeds and shells.
Fæcal sediment.Dregs, excrement.
Foraminifera.The name given to a group of many-chambered shells, generally microscopic, the chambers communicating by a small open orifice (foramen).
Fossil.A word originally applied to all substances dug out of the earth, including therefore all minerals, but now limited in its application to the remains of organic beings, whether vegetable or animal, buried beneath the surface.
Fossiliferous.Containing fossils or organic remains.
Frith.A deep and comparatively narrow arm of the sea.
Fronds.The leaf of a fern is called a frond.
Fucoid.That which resembles afucus, or seaweed:—fossil remains of fuci are called fucoids.
Fusiform.Spindle-shaped.
Galena.Sulphuret of lead.
Ganoid.A group of fishes having enameled scales.
Gasteropoda.A group of shell-bearing animals covered by one valve, and having a fleshy foot attached to the belly.
Gault.A bluish clay underlying the Chalk and Upper green sand in England.
Gavial.A species of shark found in the Ganges.
Geodes(in mineralogy) a round hollow stone whose cavity is usually filled with crystals.
Glacis.A gently sloping bank.
Glyptolepis.(Gr., carved scale.)
Glyptopomus.A Devonian fossil fish.
Gneiss.The name given to mixtures of quartz, feldspar, and mica, in which there is a laminated arrangement of the different ingredients.
Goniatites.Chambered fossil shells.
Granite.A rock consisting generally of crystals of feldspar and mica imbedded in a quartzy base.
Graminæ.Grasses.
GraptolitesorSea-Pens. Fossils of the lower Silurian system.
GrauwackeorGraywacke. The name given by German geologists to some of the older fossiliferous rocks, and generally of a gray color, sandy composition, and fissile nature.
Gryphiæ.Fossil bivalve shells found in the Lias, &c.
Habitat.The natural district to which a species of animals or vegetables is confined in its distribution.
Hexahedral.Having six equal sides.
Heterocercal.Applied to the tail of a fish, means that the upper lobe extends farther than the under.
Heteropoda.An order of univalve molluscs, whose feet form a kind of fin.
Holoptychius.A Ganoid fish of the coal-measures.
Hornblende.An important mineral in the composition of some rocks.
Homocercal.Applied to fishes having equal lobed tails.
Hornstone.A variety of quartz found in volcanic districts.
Hyaline.Transparent like glass.
Hybodentes.Fossil fish.
Hylæosaurus.Fossil lizard of the Wealden.
Hypersthene.A mineral.
Hypogene Rocks.Rocks formed beneath others or which are assumed to have obtained their present aspect underneath the earth’s surface.
Ichthyodorulite.The fossil spine of certain fishes resembling sharks.
Ichthyolites.Fragments of the bones of fossil fishes.
Ichthyology.The study and description of fishes.
Ichthyosaurus.A marine reptile (fish-lizard), whose remains are very abundant in rocks of the Secondary period.
Igneous rocks.Rocks, such as lava, trap, and some others which have been fused by volcanic heat.—Graniteand other porphyritic rocks are sometimes called crystalline.
Ignigenous.Produced by fire.
Iguanodon.Extinct gigantic lizard.
Imbricated.Covered with scales overlapping each other like tiles on the roof of a house.
Inoceramus.A bivalve of the chalk formation.
Inorganic.Not produced by vital action.
Invertebrata.Animals not furnished with a back bone.
Juncus(in botany). A rush.
Lacertians.Lizards.
Lacustrine.Belonging to a lake.
Lagoon.A salt-water lake, or part of a sea nearly inclosed by a strip of land.
Laminated.Arranged in thin plates orlaminæ.
Lenticular.Lens-shaped.
Lepidoides.Extinct fish of the Oolite formation.
Llandeilo flags.A division of the lower silurian formation of Murchison.
Lias.A provincial name now generally adopted to designate the calcareous clay or clayey limestone occurring between the Upper new red sandstone and the Oolite.
Ligneous.Woody.
Lignite.Wood converted into an imperfect kind of coal.
Lithology(lithos, a stone; logos, a discourse). Description of stones.
Littoral.Belonging to the shore.
Lophiodon.A fossil animal allied to the tapir.
Lycopodium.A cryptogamous plant.
Macauco.A four-handed animal allied to the Ape family.
Mammalia.Animals that suckle their young.
Marl.A mixture of clay and lime.
Marsupial.An animal having a pouch, as the kangaroo.
Mastodon.A gigantic extinct quadruped resembling the elephant.
Matrix.The earthy or stony matter in which a mineral or fossil is imbedded.
Mechanical Rocks.Rocks formed by deposition from water.
Megalosaurus.A gigantic extinct lizard.
Megalichthys.Megas, great; ichthus, fish.
Metamorphic Rocks.Rocks that have undergone change or metamorphosis since their original formation.
Metatarsal.The part of the foot between the ankle and toes.
Meteorology.The science of the phenomena of the atmosphere.
Mica slate.Is the lowest stratified rock except gneiss—it is unfossiliferous.
Miocene.The middle of the three divisions of tertiary rocks, according to Sir C. Lyell.
Molasse.A provincial name for a sandstone associated with marl and conglomerates, found abundantly in the great valley of Switzerland. It belongs to the middle tertiary period.
Molecules.The ultimate particles or atoms of bodies.
Mollusca.A division in Conchology.
Monomyaria.Bivalve shells having but one adductor muscle.
Moraine.A Swiss term for the débris of rocks brought down into valleys by glaciers.
Myricaciæ.Plants of the Gale family.
Mytilus.A marine shell, the mussel.
Neuropteris.A fossil fern of the coal-measures.
Nodule.A rounded irregular-shaped mass.
Nucleus.The solid center, about which matter is often collected to form solids.
Nummulites.A group of foraminiferous shells, some of them of large size and very abundant, occurring in rocks chiefly of the oldest tertiary period.
Oolite.A limestone composed of rounded particles, like the roe of a fish. The nameOoliticis applied to a considerable group of deposits in which this limestone occurs.
Organic.Exhibiting organization, or the results of vital force.Organic remains, orfossils, are the remains of the animals and vegetables of a former state of existence found buried in rocks.
Ornithic.Relating to birds.
Ornithorhynchus.A singular animal, found in New Holland, called also the water-mole.
Orthocera.A straight-chambered shell of the Silurian formation.
Osseous.Bony:Osseous brecciais a conglomerate made up of bones cemented together by lime, and mixed with earthy matter.
Osteolepis(bone-scale). A fish of the Old red sandstone.
Osteological.Relating to bones.
Outcrop.The line at which a stratum first shows itself at the surface in inclined deposits.
Oviparous.Egg-laying animals.
Pachydermata.A group of animals so called from the thickness of their skin. The elephant and pig are well known examples.
Palæoniscus.A fossil fish of the Magnesian limestone of England.
Palæontology.The science which treats of fossil organic remains; it is the zoology and botany of the ancient conditions of the earth.
Palæotherium.A genus of Pachydermata allied to the Tapir.
Pecopteris.A fern of the coal-measures.
Pelagian.Belonging to the sea.
Pentacrinite.A stone lily with five-sided foot-stalk.
Petroleum.Mineral pitch.
Phænogamous, orPhanerogamic plants. Those in which the reproductive organs are apparent.
Phryganea.A family of insects which breed in water.
Phyllolepis.Leaf-scale.
Physical.Literallynatural, but used in scientific language in treating of the higher and wider views of various departments with reference to the whole external world, and not to mere human objects.
Phytology.The department of Natural History which relates to plants. Botany.
Placoid.A group of fishes, so called from the structure of their scales.
Planorbis.A fresh water univalve. Fossil and recent.
Platygnathus.(Greek; platus, wide, and gnathos, jaw or mouth.)
Plesiosaurus.An extinct genus of reptiles.
Pliocene, Older and Newer.The upper part of the Tertiary series, so called by Sir C. Lyell from the preponderance of recent shells in them.
Plumbago(Black lead). The name commonly given tographite, a form of carbon.
Plutonic rocks.Rocks supposed to be due to igneous action at great depths below the earth’s surface, have been thus named by older geologists. The igneous action is not manifest in such rocks, but presumed, as in the case of granite.
Polyparia.A group of animals of which thecoral animalis a well known example.
Porcellia.The papaw, a plant now called asimina.
Porphyry.Any rock having crystals imbedded in a base of other mineral composition. Thus granite is a porphyritic rock, having crystals of feldspar and mica imbedded in a quartz base.
Predaceus.Preying upon other animals.
Prehnite.A mineral.
Primary, orPrimitive. This name is commonly applied to the rocks which underlie those that are manifestly of mechanical origin and contain fossils.
Prodectus.A bivalve shell.
Pterichthys.(Winged fish.) A fossil of the Old red sandstone.
Pterodactyl.A remarkable genus of reptiles adapted for flight; its remains have been found in a fossil state throughout the Secondary rocks.
Pteropoda.Marine animals having wing-like fins.
Pudding stone.The name often given to coarse conglomerates in which the fragments or pebbles are rounded.
Pyrites.A name given to the combinations of certain metals with sulphur.
Qua-qua-versal.The dip of beds in every direction from an elevated central point. The beds on the flanks of a volcanic cone dip in this way.
Quartz.The common form of silica; rock-crystal and flint are examples.
Raceme(in botany). When the florets are arranged along the sides of a general peduncle.
Radiata.A division of the animal kingdom so called because the body is frequently presented in a radiated form like the common star-fish.
Reticulated.A structure of crossed fibers, like a net, is said to be reticulated.
Rock(in Geology). Any mass of mineral matter of considerable or indefinite extent and nearly uniform character, is called in geological language a rock, without regard to its hardness or compactness: thus, loose sand and clay, as well as sandstone and limestone, are spoken of under this name.
Rock salt.Common salt occurring in a crystalline state in rocks.
Roe-stone.The name sometimes given toOolite.
Ruminantia.An important group of quadrupeds including those which chew the cud, as the ox, deer, &c.
Saccharoid.Having the texture of loaf sugar.
Saliferous system.The new red sandstone system, so called from the salt with which it is associated in parts of England.
Saurian(reptilian). Any animal of the lizard tribe, and many extinct reptiles only distantly allied to these.
Sauroids.Marine fishes resembling lizards.
Salmonoides.Resembling the salmon.
Schist.A name often used as synonymous with slate, but more commonly, and very conveniently, limited to those rocks which do not admit of indefinite splitting, like slate, but are only capable of a less perfect separation into layers or laminæ. Of this kind are gneiss, mica-schist, &c., often more or less crystalline.
Scirpus(in Botany). A rush.
Scoriæ.The name given to volcanic ashes. The word means any kind of cinders, but its scientific use is thus limited.
Shale.An indurated clay, less fissile than schist, but splitting with tolerable facility in plates parallel to each other, and to the original planes of bedding.
Shell marl.A deposit of clay, peat, and silt, mixed with shells, which collects at the bottom of fresh-water lakes.
Serpula(in Conchology). A worm-like marine shell.
Serrated.Having points like a saw.
Sigillaria.Fossil plants found in the coal-measures.
Silex,Silica. The name given by Mineralogists to a pure earth, more commonly spoken of asflint, and, when crystallized, called rock-crystal.
Silt.The name usually given to the muddy deposit found at the bottom of running streams.
Silurian.The name given by Sir R. Murchison to an important series of fossiliferous rocks well developed in, and first described from, a district in Wales and Shropshire formerly inhabited by theSiluri, a tribe of Ancient Britons.
Siphuncle.A small tube passing through an orifice in the septum of a chambered shell.
Sphenopteris.Fossilfern (leaf wedge-shaped).
Spheroid.Having a shape nearly resembling that of a sphere or globe.
Spirifer.An extinct bivalve.
StalactiteandStalagmite. Concretions of carbonate of lime and sometimes of other minerals, as quartz or even malachite, deposited by water dropping from the roof of a cavern or other vacant space.
Steatite.Soapstone.
Stigmaria.A coal fossil, an aquatic plant.
Stratification.The condition of rocks or accumulated minerals deposited in layers, beds, orstrata.
Strike.The line of bearing of strata, or the direction of any horizontal line on a stratum.
Superposition.An expression very commonly employed by Geologists to describe the order of arrangementwhen one bed or stratum reposes upon another.
Supra-cretaceous.A term applied by Sir H. de la Bèche to rocks overlying the chalk. The term Tertiary is now universally adopted for this group.
Syenite.The granite of the quarries of Syene in Egypt. It is usual to call by this name any combination of quartz, feldspar, and hornblende.
Synclinal axis.The line of depression between two anticlinal axes.
Syncondrosis.Connection of bones by cartilage.
Terebratula.A fossil shell.
Tertiary strata.The series of sedimentary rocks overlying the chalk, or other representative of the Secondary period, and extending thence to the rocks of the Recent period.
Testacea.Molluscous or soft animals having a shelly covering.
Thecodont.A fossil saurian or marine lizard.
Thermal.Hot.Thermal Springsare springs whose temperature is above the mean annual temperature of the place where they break out.
Tetrapterous.Four-winged.
Tibia.The principal bone of the leg.
Toad-stone.The name given by miners to beds of basalt, occurring in Derbyshire.
Trachyte.A feldspathic variety of lava.
Trap.Crystalline rocks, composed chiefly of feldspar, augite and hornblende, combined in many ways, and exhibiting great varieties of aspect, are frequently called by this name.
Trias.The name given on the continent to the beds of the New red sandstone series.
Trilobite.A common fossil in the Dudley limestone, so named from the characteristic species having the body divided into three lobes. Trilobites are the remains of a remarkable extinct family of Crustaceans, of which the crab, lobster, &c., are modern representatives.
Trionyx.A genus of tortoise, having three claws.
Tufaceous,Tuff. An Italian name for a variety of volcanic rock of earthy texture, and made up chiefly or entirely of fragments of volcanic ashes.
Turbinated.Shells which have a spiral or screw-like structure are thus named.
Unconformable superposition(instratification). The condition of strata when one has been deposited horizontally upon the upturned edges of those immediately below.
Unio.Fresh water bivalve.
Vertebrata, or Vertebrated Animals. A large and most important division of the animal kingdom, including all those animals provided with a back bone. Each separate bone of the back is called avertebra.
Vertex.The summit or upper part of a solid.
Vitreous.Glassy. Used in Mineralogy to designate a peculiar luster.
Viviparous.Bearing young alive.
Warp.The deposit of muddy waters.
Wealden.The name given to an important fresh-water formation, occurring between the Cretaceous and Oolitic rocks, chiefly in the Wealds of Kent and Sussex.
Whin-stone.A provincial term applied to some trap rocks.
Zamia.A plant allied to the palm, plentiful east of the Cape of Good Hope.
Zeolite.A group of minerals which swell and boil up when exposed to the blow-pipe flame.
Zoophyte.The term applied to some animals of low organization, which, during the greater part of their lives, are attached to some foreign substance, and are incapable of locomotion.