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plants. In the dull layers, wood tissue is met with, but the 
specimens are too much decomposed to admit of drawing any 
conclusion from them. The cretaceous coals are, however a 
confirmation of what has been before stated in respect of the 
carboniferous coals, namely, that they have been accumulated 
‘in much the same way as the lignites and peat bogs of more 
recent times, further modified by time and pressure. 
Professor Harxer had examined the slides prepared by Mr 
WETHERED, and was of opinion that the spores are more nearly 
allied to those of the Iséetew than to those of the other families 
of Lycopods. 
The paper was illustrated by a fine series of diagrams, while 
three or four microscopes on the table enabled the members to 
verify the forms, of which the diagrams presented enlarged 
representations. 
THE THIRD WINTER MERTING 
of the Club for the season was held in 
GLOUCESTER 
on Wednesday, March 11th, in the present year, when a paper 
was read by Professor Harker on “ The Habits of some 
Annelids found in Gloucestershire.” 
This paper arose out of certain queries addressed to the 
lecturer in the spring of last year by the President of the Club, 
whose attention had been called to the subject by a lady who 
had collected a quantity of these obscure forms of animal life 
from an adjoining pond. This animal, the tubifex rivulorwm, 
is of common occurrence in the mud of ponds and streams; it is 
of a red colour, from one inch to an inch-and-a-half in length. 
Where it is prevalent it colours the mud red, but so sensitive is 
it that the stamping of a foot in the neighbourhood will cause 
the whole colony to disappear, in which action it withdraws to 
such a depth and with such rapidity that it is not easy to 
