304 Proceedings of the Club - 



X 



fcrred. Dr. Ilollick presented instead a short descriptive abstract 

 of the subject, comparing the taxonomic series of vegetable hfe as 

 it now exists and the phylogenetic series of the past, consecutive 

 from Azoic to Neozoic time. He alluded to the first occurrence 

 of modern genera in the Mesozoic, and of modern species in the 

 Tertiary, and to the vigorous growth made by lower forms of 

 algae in the hot waters of Yellowstone Park, suggesting that 

 similar algal life was probably characteristic of the earlier heated 

 waters of the globe. He stated that many of the Cambrian casts 

 claimed to represent algae are undoubtedly rightly interpreted ; 

 and then sketched the successive appearances of the earliest known 

 g)'mnosperms in the Devonian, monocotyledons in the Triassic, 

 and dicotyledons In the Cretaceous, by the middle of which period 

 many modern genera are recognized. Ferns and Lycopods of 

 modern families appeared in the Devonian, the first known Musci; 

 Hepaticae, and Fungi in the Tertiary. Plant remains in glacial 

 deposits are exactly the same as species now living a little further 

 to the nortli. The Carboniferous fern-species which have been 

 figured and named outnumber those of the whole world now liv- 

 ing. The coal flora was probably practical!}' identical all o\'er the 

 world. Every time a new horizon is opened up, even down to the 

 Tertiary, there are man}' new fossil ferns discovered in it. 



The second subject presented was the exhibition and descrip- 

 tion of a hygroscopic plant-specimen by Dr. C. J. Fames. The 

 specimen Avas originally described in an article entitled " The 

 Resurrection Flower" in IIarpcr*s Monthly, April, 1857, p. 619. 

 Dr. Fames* specimen seemed to be the ripened circle of ovaries of 

 some malvaceous flower, and displayed very marked hygroscopic 



I 



movement, expanding completely within fifteen minutes after moist- 

 ening. Dr. Fames, a chemist, obtained his specimen in i860 from 

 Dr. I. Beck, who said that he had secured this, and one other like 

 it, about 1849 '^vhcn in Upper Fgypt. Tlie other specimen passed 

 into the possession of Humboldt. Dr. Fames exhibited specimens 

 of Asfraciis and Anastatica for comparison, their hygroscopic 

 movement being less perfect. 



P-1)WARD S. BUROESS, . " 



Sicritarv. 



