University of London. 69 



exclusion of the slate. Besides these masses of rock, which are more 

 or less perfectly stratified, there are at several places on the outskirts 

 of the Forest large protuberances of syenite, sometimes passing into 

 true granite. Similar masses break out of the red marl at Enderby, 

 Stony Stanton, and four other places about ten miles south of Cham- 

 wood Forest. What the author considered most important was the 

 establishment of a single anticlinal axis, ranging from the neighbour- 

 hood of Bradgate Park in a direction about N.W., through the longest 

 diameter of the district. On the opposite sides of this line the beds 

 have opposite dips, and the whole Forest ridge is therefore composed 

 of a single saddle, the sides of which are generally inclined at a con- 

 siderable angle. 



In the third part, Professor Sedgwick briefly considered the date of 

 the elevation of the Forest ridge, and the effects produced by it on the 

 neighbouring country. In the first place, he showed by sections that 

 the forest ridge had been elevated, and that many of the valleys be- 

 longing to its actual configuration existed, prior to the deposit of the 

 new red sandstone ; secondly, from the position of five highly inclined 

 masses of mountain limestone appearing on a line drawn from Breedon 

 to the N.W. corner of the Forest ridge, that the movement of elevation 

 was posterior to the deposit of the carboniferous series. In short, the 

 five masses above mentioned were stated to dip under theAshbydela 

 Zouch coal field, and their position to be perfectly accounted for by the 

 prolongation of the anticlinal line above mentioned. Still further to 

 the N.W. the forces of elevation connected with the anticlinal line 

 seem to have produced no sensible effects, as the limestone at Ticknall 

 in Derbyshire is nearly horizontal. Lastly, the author expressed his 

 opinion that the coal field of Nuneaton had been elevated by an un- 

 dulation of the lower strata, parallel to, and probably of the same 

 date with, Charnwood Forest ; and that both these elevations were 

 probably of the same epoch with the disturbing forces which threw up 

 the transition limestone and coal measures of Staffordshire, and pro- 

 duced the configuration of the great coal fields in the south-western 

 parts of England. 



UNIVERSITY OF LONDON. 

 At the commencement of the first Conversazione for the season, 

 Dr. Lindley delivered a lecture upon the nature of the ancient plants, 

 by the remains of which the beds of coal at Newcastle have been 

 formed. His object was to prove, by an explanation of the nature of 

 some of the more remarkable of the plants now found buried in the 

 shale of the coal measures, the truth of the modern opinion, that the 

 scenery of the North of England must in ancient days have been en- 

 riched with Palms, Treo-ferns, gigantic Cacti, tropical Conifera, and 

 other enormous plants, which are characteristic of the stately vege- 

 tation of equatorial latitudes at the present aera. These singular re- 

 mains were considered sufficient by themselves to establish the cor- 

 rectness of the theory, without having recourse to the apparent pre- 

 ponderance of ferns over all other tribes, — a circumstance which it 

 was stated would probably be found susceptible of an explanation 



