few degrees removed above those that propagate without proper 

 flowers, the Cryptogams. Intimately connected with this lower 

 development is the early appearance of such plants, in the geo- 

 logical series, many ages before real flowering plants made their 

 appearance on our globe. — The cycadaceous plants are the pro- 

 totypes of the monocotyledons, and especially of the palms, and 

 the conifers those of the dicotyledonous trees. Among animals, 

 the Marsupials hold a similar position to the ordinary Mammals, 

 and they are also geologically older than the more complete 

 animals, which they seem to shadow forth. 



Mr. Riley remarked that such facts were of great interest to the 

 evolutionist, pointing as they do to the divergence, in time, of the 

 more widely separated forms from some primitive types, of which 

 in the cases cited the Sago palms and the Marsupials are the 

 present and possibly modified representatives. 



Mr. Riley spoke at some length upon the " Geographical 

 Range of Species." He regretted his absence at the last meeting, 

 when his article on " Locust Flights," in which he argued that 

 the Caloptenus spretus could not permanently thrive south of 

 the forty-fourth parallel or east of the one hundredth meridian, 

 was discussed, and exceptions taken to its conclusions by Dr. 

 Engelmann and Prof. Nipher. The subject was an interesting 

 one, and the principal difficulty in the way of properly appre- 

 hending the facts was found in the failure in the popular mind 

 to discriminate between species. Dr. Engelmann had instanced 

 the Colorado beetle's spread to the Atlantic ; but there was a 

 great difference between the spread of a species in nature, and 

 that spread which is aided or influenced by man. He was very 

 well aware that species do spread, and he had in his 2d Report 

 laid particular stress upon the different weeds and insects which 

 have been imported from Europe. He had also in the introduc- 

 tion to a little work on "Potato Pests," now being published, 

 dwelt at length on the same subject ; but he did not think that 

 any single instance could be furnished of a species which had in 

 our time extended or contracted its range without the aid of man. 

 It was in not keeping in view this difference between the natural 

 range of a species, and that range as affected directly or indirectly 

 by man, that the objection made to his paper lacked force. — By 



