pointed out by Mr. Carruthers, but more advanced than the modern Equiseta, while the Calamodendra were similar in general structure, but much more woody plants.
Professor Heer has described the flora of Bear Island, in latitude 74° 30' N. He considers it to belong to the lower part of the Carboniferous series. There are eighteen species of plants, having a close relation with those of the Yellow Sandstones of county Cork and of the Greywacke of the Black Forest. Taking also the fossil flora of Parry Island and Melville Island, which he considers the equivalent of that of the Bear-Island beds, we have a total of 77 species of plants. Not less remarkable than the occurrence of this rich and luxuriant vegetation in those arctic regions during this Carboniferous period, is the appearance of a flora equally rich and varied, in the same regions, in the comparatively recent Miocene times.
Mr. Billings has made in the Lower Silurian rocks of Canada the interesting discovery of a Trilobite (Asaphus platycephalus) with its appendages preserved and the hypostome in position. It shows that the creature had eight pairs of legs; so that probably these Crustacea were walking rather than swimming animals. Mr. Woodward has found in a specimen presented some years since to the British Museum by Dr. Bigsby traces of similar appendages. He considers that the Trilobita should now be placed next to, if not actually with, the modern Isopoda.
Dr. Grey has sent us some interesting specimens of Dicynodont fossils, jaws of reptiles, and coal-plants, from the Karoo beds of South Africa.
Mr. Guppy is of opinion that he has detected an Eozoon, with a coral and echinoderms, in some Trinidad rocks, the age of which is uncertain, but considered by the author to be pre-Silurian.
The Palaeontographical Society continues its valuable publications. The volume for 1870 contains the concluding part of Mr. Davidson's great work on the Brachiopods. It completes the Silurian Brachiopoda, consisting of 28 genera and 210 species, while the whole work, by that author, forms three volumes, with 150 plates, all of which have been drawn and contributed by Mr. Davidson himself. Another paper of importance is the complete monograph of British Mesozoic Mammals by Prof. Owen, containing descriptions and illustrations of 15 genera and 27 species. Independently of your own Society, the progress of geology is being actively advanced by local societies, the number of which is
vol. xxvii. d
