552 Geological Society. 



species now Inhaljiting Madeira; namely, Vaccin'mm Maderense, 

 Erica arborea, Woodwardla radicans, and Davnllia Cannriensis. Of 

 these, the Vacc'inium is at present restricted to the island of Madeira; 

 the others have a wider range. These facts may perhaps justify ns 

 in inferring (though certainly not with confidence) that the condi- 

 tions of climate of the island in the time of the S. Jorge deposit 

 were not verj'- widely different from those now existing. 



2. Certain other forms in the list (about four or five) are distinctly 

 different from any now known, at least in Madeira or the neigh- 

 bouring islands, and appear to belong to extinct species. 



3. None of the fossils can be said to belong distinctly and posi- 

 tively to tropical families. 



4. Those forms, among the fossils, M'hich are different from the 

 present vegetation of Madeira, do not show any marked analogy to 

 the American or any other existing Flora. 



5. The fossil leaves from S. Jorge show, on the whole, a decided 

 analogy to the recent vegetation of the Madeira forests, inasmuch 

 as there is among them a predominance of undivided and entire- 

 edged leaves, with smooth (not wrinkled) and glossy surface. 



6. The intermixture of abundant remains of Ferns with those of 

 Dicotyledons is a characteristic of this leaf-bed, in which it shows 

 a complete agreement with the existing state of things in the Ma- 

 deira forests. Such an intermixture is not usual in the plant-bear- 

 ing deposits of the palaeozoic, secondary, or tertiary periods. 



7. The very small number of Monocotyledons hitherto found is 

 remarkable, but may be owing to accidental causes. 



8. On the whole, the author is disposed to conclude that the vege- 

 tation of Madeira at the time when the S. Jorge leaf-bed was formed 

 was, though not absolutely identical with that now existing, yet not 

 very different from it. But all such conclusions must be received 

 with great caution. 



Mr. Bunbury moreover entered at some length into an inquiry as 

 to the value of the evidence afforded by detached leaves of Dicotyle- 

 donous plants, and the degree of confidence due to conclusions 

 founded upon such evidence, as to the affinities of extinct plants. 



2. " On a Section of a part of the Fifeshire Coast." By the Rev. 

 T. Brown. Communicated by Sir R. Murchison, V.P.G.S. 



A section of the Lower Coal-measures, as exposed on the northern 

 shore of the Firth of Forth, from Burntisland to Anstruther, con- 

 structed by the Rev. T, Brown, of Edinburgh, was exhibited to the 

 Meeting. In bis notes on the section, the author remarked that 

 the limestone with which the section commences at Burntisland, 

 the fossils of which have long been known, is the equivalent of the 

 Burdiehouse beds. Passing eastward through the Mountain-lime- 

 stone (500 feet thickness of sandstone, shale, and five or six beds of 

 limestone), with trap-rocks, the section reaches the Upper Coal- 

 measures (1700 feet thick). Crossing this coal-basin, the same 

 Mountain-limestone beds reappear in reversed order, fold over an 

 axis beyond Elie, and after minor bendings plunge under the basin 



