576 Chronicles of Science. [ Oct., 
The Tyneside Naturalists’ Field Club has long been known as 
one of the foremost in the country ; and in having encouraged the 
working-out of the natural history of the district over which its 
labours extend, it is decidedly in advance of any other local society 
in Great Britain. The last volume of the new series of its publica- 
tion * is entirely occupied with “A New Flora of Northumberland 
and Durham,” of a very comprehensive character. We must leave 
the Botany to other judges, and shall merely mention that the pre- 
liminary essay on the Geology of the district, by Mr. George Tate, 
is remarkably good, although it contains’ reference to a division of 
the Carboniferous Limestone (Tuedian) which is not usually 
recognized. Perhaps Mr. Jukes would call it Carboniferous Slate. 
Mr. Baker’s observations on the influence of the’ subjacent rocks on 
plant-distribution are extremly good, and we are glad to notice that 
Thurmann’s division of rocks into Dysgeogenous (or bad producers 
of soil) and Eugeogenous (or good producers of soil) has been 
adopted by the author. 
In the ‘Annals and Magazine of Natural History,’ for July 
and August, Professor W. King and Dr. Carpenter have returned 
to their old battle-ground, the structure of Sprrzfer cuspidatus. The 
former author regards the so-called “ perforated ” and “ imperforate” 
forms as belonging to one and the same species, the absence of per- 
forations being the result of metamorphism ; while Dr. Carpenter 
avers that the imperforate form has a continuous shell-structure, 
which would not be the case had it once been perforated and the 
tubes subsequently obliterated by metamorphism. 
In the July number of the same Magazine Dr. Nicholson 
describes a new genus of Graptolites (Helicograpsus) ; and Professor 
Rupert Jones and Dr. Holl publish another instalment of their 
“ Notes on the Paleozoic Bivalved Entomostraca,” including deserip- 
tions of Lower Silurian species from the Chair of Kildare. 
The Cretaceous deposits of Spain have more importance than 
their representatives in other countries, as they yield the chief 
supplies of coal in the eastern part of the peninsula. Of these 
coal-bearing strata those of Utrillas, near Montalban, occupy the 
first rank, and the memoir on their Fossils, “ Description des fossiles 
du Néocomien Supérieur de Utrillas et ses Environs (Province de 
Teruel),” by Messrs. de Verneuil and de Loriére will be of great 
importance in future searches for combustible minerals in that 
country, as all the Spanish productive coal-beds of Secondary age 
are shown to correspond in date with those of Utrillas. It is also 
worthy of note that the fossils include several species of Vicarya,— 
a genus which was first described from the Eocene beds of India, 
where it is represented by only one species, and of which, until 
* ‘Natural History Transactions of Northumberland and Durham,’ vol ix. 
