228 Palaeontologie. 



studied. The specimens forming the basis of the present paper are 

 in the Sedgwick Museum Cambridge. The plants reported include 

 Sphenopteris, several species of Neuropteris, Alethopteris and Lepido- 

 dendron, and Mariopteris muricata. The species Dictyopteris sub- 

 Brong)iiarti is also recorded, and is known only from the Middle 

 Coal Measures. The author concludes that the flora is typical Middle 

 Coal Measures, and is closely related to that of the Yorkshire 

 Coal-field. M. C. Stopes (London). 



Ben son, M., Cordaites Felicis sp. nov., a Cordaitean Leaf 

 from the Lower Coal Measures of England. (Ann. Bot. 

 XXVI. p. 201-207. pl. XXII. 1 textfig. Jan. 1912.) 



The specimens were found in Coal balls from Shore, Little- 

 borough, and are better preserved than is the case in most 

 English Cordaitean fragments. The name Felicis was selected be- 

 cause of the close affinity they show to Prof. Felix's forms. The ränge 

 of structure exhibited by the specimens is not more than is com- 

 mon in modern conifers, and the specimens are therefore held to 

 represent a Single species. In the diagnoses of the new species, it 

 is noted that its upper part resembles G. Wedekindi and its basal 

 C, loculosus and C. robustus. The centripetal elements of the mesarch 

 xylem are better developed than the centrifugal, the latter being 

 more abundant in the base of the leaf however. The palisade is 

 but little differentiated and the leaf parenchyma but slightly lacunar. 

 The whole leaf is markedty xerophilous. Detailed descriptions and 

 measurements are given, and form the basis for the comparison 

 with other species. M. C. Stopes (London). 



Chapman, F., On the Occurrence of Broun Cannel Coal 

 ("Kerosene Shale") with Reinschia australis in the Falkland 

 Islands. (Nature. LXXXVIII. 2197. p. 176. 1911.) 



From sections cut in Melbourne, Australia, of a specimen 

 sent from the Falkland Islands, it appears that the "Kerosene 

 shale" is formed almost entirely of the small(?) thallophyte described 

 by Renault and Bertrand as Reinschia australis. The specific 

 gravities of the Falkland Island and New South Wales rocks 

 are also the same, and the former should be called a 'Cannel Wal'. 



M. C. Stopes (London). 



Cockerell, T. D. A., The Names of Fossil Plants. (Nature. 

 LXXXVIII. 2206. p. 484. 1912.) 



A letter agreeing that there should be some ready way of 

 distinguishing between the fossil plants which are referred with 

 reasonable assurance to their genera, and those which are not, and 

 proposing that the genus should be written within quotation marks, 

 as easier for the printer than the gothic type suggested by Dr. 

 Marie Stopes. M. C. Stopes (London). 



Nathorst, A. G., On the Value ofthe Fossil Floras of the 

 Arctic Regions as Evidence of Geological Climates. 

 (Geol. Mag VIII. p. 217-225. May 1911. [A paper read before the 

 llth Intern. Geol. Congress, Stockholm 1910].) 



The author points out that the contrast between the present 



