Oc'-l Field Naturalists' Club — Proceedings. 8 1 



ELECTION OF MEMBER. 



On a ballot being taken, Mr. Henry Exley, Male-street, 

 Brighton, was duly elected a member of the Club. 



GENERAL BUSINESS. 



The chairman announced that the arrangements in con- 

 nection \w\ih the exhibition of wild-flowers were progressing 

 satisfactorily. The committee would be glad of all the help 

 possible at the Town Hall early on the morning of the 2nd 

 prox., and members were urged to ask their country friends 

 to forward as many flowers as possible. 



The chairman said that Mr. F. Keep had generously donated 

 a complete set — twenty-two volumes — of the Naturalists' 

 Library to the Club's library. A hearty vote of tlianks was 

 accorded to Mr. Keep for the donation. 



PAPER READ. 



By Mr. F. Chapman, A.L.S., entitled " A Sketch of the 

 Geological History of Australian Plants : Part I. — The Palaeozoic 

 Flora." 



The author said that he had found his subject too extensive 

 for one paper, and therefore proposed to deal only with the 

 Pakeozoic flora on the present occasion. He pointed out the 

 paucity of undoubted plant remains until the Devonian period, 

 the earlier forms being largely represented b}^ the limestone- 

 forming alg?e. From the Devonian to the Permian, appropri- 

 ately named the Cryptogamic period, the flora developed by 

 leaps and bounds, the predominance of the Lycopodiales, the 

 Ferns, and the Cordaitalcs being well represented in Aus- 

 tralian rocks. Although Lepidodendron was remarkably 

 dominant, the Sigillari?e of the northern hemisphere were con- 

 spicuously absent ; whilst the Horsetail group — Equisetales — 

 is moderately represented by remains of Phyllotheca and some 

 rare Calamitean forms. The importance of the Glossopteris 

 flora was especially noticed, and the geological reasons given 

 for the formation of vast storage areas of carbonaceous deposits, 

 which are so necessary for the welfare of Australia's population 

 at the present time. A corollary of the evidence shown by t\\v 

 various types of plant life in these older rocks is that the well- 

 worn dogma of distinct stratigraphical breaks in the geological 

 record is crumbling away, in view of the continuity of life 

 forms, both vegetable and animal. 



Tin; paper was well illustrated by lantern slides, some of 

 which depicted specimens only recently described. 



In answer to questions, the author stated the remains of 

 Lepidodendrons — the ancient representatives of the modern 

 club-mosses — gave an estimated height of about 50 feet. 



