98 THE CANADIAN NATURALIST. [March 



GEOLOGY AND MINERALOGY. 



At a meeting of the Geological Society of London, held 

 December 22nd, 1869, the following papers were read : 



Notes on the Structure op Sigillaria, by Principal 

 Dawson, F.R.S., F.G.S., Montreal. — In this paper the author 

 criticised the statements of Mr. Carruthers on the structure of 

 Sigillaria (see Q. J. G. S. xxv. p. 248). He remarked that Sigillaria, 

 as evidenced by his specimens, is not coniferous ; that the conifer- 

 ous trunks found in the coal-formation of Nova Scotia do not 

 present discigerous tissue of the same type as that of Sigillaria ; 

 that no Conifer has a slender woody axis surrounded by an 

 enormously thick bark ; that Calamodendron was probably a Gym- 

 nosperm, and allied to Sigillaria ; that although Stigmaria may not 

 always show medullary rays, the distinct separation of the wood 

 into wedges is an evidence of their having existed ; that the dif- 

 ference in minute structure between Sigillaria and Stigmaria 

 involves no serious difficulty if the former be regarded as allied 

 to Cycadaceas ; and further, that we do not know how many of the 

 Stigmarise belong to Sigillaria proper, or Favularia, or to such 

 forms as Clathraria and Leioderma, which may have been more 

 nearly allied to Lepidophloios ; that the fruit figured by Goldenberg 

 as that of Sigillaria is more probably that of Lepidophloios, or 

 may be a male catkin with pollen ; and that he has found Trigon- 

 ocarpa scattered around the trunks of Sigillaria, and on the 

 surface of the soil on which they grew. He agreed with Mr. 

 Carruthers in regarding Mr. Binney's Sigillaria vascularis as 

 allied to Lepidodendron. 



Discussion. — Professor Morris thought that Clathraria and 

 Lepidophloios ought to be discriminated from the Sigillarias, as 

 being rather more nearly allied with cycadaceous plants, especially 

 the former. He pointed out the maner in which certain vascular 

 bundles communicating between the centre of the stem of Sigil- 

 laria and allied genera and their bark might be mistaken for 

 medullary rays. 



Note on some New Animal Remains from the Car- 

 boniferous AND Devonian of Canada, by Principal Dawson, 

 F.R.S., F.G.S., Montreal. — The author described the characters 



