Linncean Society, ^5 



Long. corp. cum rostro lin. 30 j rostr. lin. 12 j expans. alar.lin.55. 



Hab. in peninsula Malacensi. Mus. D. Hope. 



Dec. 2.— At the Special Meeting held this day, Edward Lord 

 Bishop of Norwich was elected President of the Society, in the room 

 of His Grace the Duke of Somerset, who has resigned. 



Dec. 5. — The Secretary read a letter from the President, in which 

 he nominated Mr. Brown, Mr. Forster, Dr. Horsfield, and Mr. Lam . 

 bert, Vice-Presidents for the present year. 



The Chairman read a letter addressed to the President, from Lord 

 John Russell, Her Majesty's Principal Secretary of State for the 

 Home Department, in answer to the Address to Her Majesty, voted 

 at the preceding ordinary Meeting, and announcing that Her Ma- 

 jesty had been graciously pleased to become the Patroness of the 

 •Society. 



A number of casts and impressions of recent ferns and other plants 

 were placed on the table lor exhibition by Mr. Morris, Chemist, 

 Kensington. In a note which accompanied the specimens Mr. 

 Morris stated that he found it impossible in many cases to deter- 

 mine from the casts whether the divisions of the frond were con- 

 tinuous with the rhachis or midrib, or elevated on a partial stalk, 

 as in Pteris falcata, Lindstea trapeziformis, and many others; and 

 that this character, which is also dependent in some instances upon 

 whether the cast is taken from the under or upper surface, has been 

 a source of error in the distribution of fossil species. Some of the 

 specimens, previously soaked in metallic solutions, such as sulphate of 

 iron, &c., having been placed between layers of clay, and afterwards 

 subjected to the heatof a furnace, presented complete casts of theplants. 

 In most cases the whole of the carbonaceous matter was found to 

 have been removed, leaving merely white ashes, in which the original 

 structure was occasionally retained, as in the case of Equiseta and 

 some Coniferce; but in others where a portion of the carbonaceous mat- 

 ter had been retained, the clay was found coloured for some distance 

 around the specimen. Some of these examples Mr. Morris conceives 

 explain the state in which some fossil ferns are found in the sand- 

 stones and shales, associated with the carboniferous and oolitic series, 

 that is partly bituminized and partly mineralized. 



Read a notice of certain Australian Quadrupeds belonging to the 

 order Rodentia. By William Ogilby, Esq.. M.A. F.L.S., &c. 



The object of this memoir was to explain the natural relations of 

 the Monodelphine quadrupeds of Australia, and to describe some 

 new forms and species which had lately come to the author's know- 

 ledge. Mr. Ogilby commenced by remarking upon the anomalous 

 character of Australian zoology, particularly as regards the mammals 

 of that extensive Continent. With the exception of the native dog, 

 two or three species of rats, and the hydromys, it was observed that 

 all the Australian quadrupeds hitherto discovered belonged exclu- 

 sively to the marsupial family ; and, on the other hand, that this 

 tribe of animals, was, with a very few exceptions, equally confined 

 to the continent of New Holland, and the neighbouring islands. Of 

 the exceptions to this general rule^ one of the most singular and im- 



