NOTES AND EXHIBITS. 283 



Government, but his (the President's) many occupations did not 

 permit the completion of the work until now. The results of the 

 study of these organisms were so very important and interesting 

 that he felt sure a brief resume of them would be acceptable to 

 the Society. 



He had found that in the Tertiary period, the New Zealand 

 radiate fauna was as distinct from that of Australia as it is now, 

 and that while comparatively poor in species, it was richer than 

 at present. It was principally distinguished by the number and 

 variety of the representatives of the genus Flalelmm. TrochocyatJie 

 were also found similar to the Miocene fossils of Europe. These 

 were scarcely known in Australia as fossils. Some new and 

 interesting forms were also discovered which required new genera 

 for their reception . It was remarkable that the genus Balanophjllia 

 which had numerous species in Australia both living and fossil, 

 had only two species known in New Zealand. One of these was 

 a peculiar and exceptional form. In the class Bryozoa he had 

 found two species of FascicuUpora — a genus which had hitherto 

 been regarded as confined to the Lower Pliocene of Europe. 

 Probably they flourished in both seas contemporaneously. It 

 was, he considered, a fact of more than ordinary interest in 

 natural science that two such characteristic and closely allied 

 organisms should flourish at the same epoch, in such remote seas 

 as those of Britain and New Zealand. The differences between 

 the fossils were so small that if they were found in the same beds 

 they would be regarded as mere varieties. The Bryozoa, common 

 to the New Zealand and Australian tertiaries, were very numerous 

 and he was inclined to regard the Oamaru and the Mount Gambier 

 Limestones as contemporaneous. This would require a modification 

 of existing conclusions, for the New Zealand formations were 

 thus younger, or the Australian older, than the geologists of the 

 respective Colonies were at present inclined to regard them. In 

 conclusion the President laid his drawings (32 in number) of the 

 fossils on the table for the inspection of the members ; and he 



