1865.] DAWSON — THE BRITISH ASSOCIATION. 409 



There still remains some doubt as to the cup and epidermis. Grant- 

 ing that the cavity at the small end is natural and hot caused by 

 the destruction of the septa in the central tube, then Beatricea has 

 all the essential organic parts which constitute a genus of corals 

 allied to Cystiphyllum. This may be seen by comparing figs. 2, 3, 

 above. The most remarkable differences are, the great size of the 

 individuals, and the disposition of the cells in the outer layers of 

 vesicular tissue. In Cystiphyllum the convex sides of the cells 

 of the walls of the cup are always turned inwards, or sloping up- 

 wards and inwards. In Beatricea the reverse of this is the case. 

 As above stated, Beatricea was first made known by the speci- 

 mens collected by J. Richardson, in 1856. It was afterwards, in 

 1858, found by the same geologist and Prof. R. Bell, at Lake St. 

 John, on the river Saguenay. Mr. Bell has also collected fine 

 specimens on Rabbit and Club Islands, in Lake Huron. There 

 is a specimen in the Museum of the Geological Society of London 

 that was brought from Anticosti, by Admiral Bayfield, many years 

 ago. Mr. Hyatt says that Prof. J. D. Dana has some frag- 

 ments of a species resembling B. undulata from Kentucky. 

 Its geological range, so far as it is at present known, is from 

 the Hudson River formation up to the Clinton. 



NOTES ON THE MEETING OF THE BRITISH ASSO- 

 CIATION AT BIRMINGHAM, 1865. 



In approaching Birmingham from the west, the visitor learns to 

 appreciate the appellation ' black country,' which has long been 

 enjoyed by the Staffordshire coal districts and their neighborhood. 

 The smoke of hundreds of collieries and furnaces and foundries 

 darkens the air ; the green fields give place for miles together to 

 piles of coal, cinders and ashes ; and in some places the eye can 

 discern, as far as the murky atmosphere will allow it to penetrate, 

 no green thing. In the day, the aspect of the land is dark and 

 lowering ; in the night it brightens with the glow of innumerable 

 furnace fires. It is a pity that the green face of nature cannot be 

 preserved where men toil to extract wealth out of the bowels of 

 the earth ; but when both ends cannot be secured, the greater 

 number of people can be supported by thus defacing the aspect of 

 nature. The black country is thus, by virtue of its coal and iron, 

 densely populous, greatly thriving, and a chief abode of manu- 



