88 NEW PUBLICATIONS. 
the Geological Commission. The first part of the work is before us. 
It contains the species found in the coal measures, and a short note, 
with drawings, of some anomalous organisms from the Silurian strata. 
The great proportion of the coal plants described are Ferns. It is re- 
markable that no species of Sigillaria has been found, although the 
Stigmarian root occurs. With them are associated specimens of Lepi- 
dodendron and Knorria. The most interesting fossil described is the 
fruit of a species of Catamites, resembling what Brongniart called 
Aderophyllites tuberculoid ; and certainly the same species as that to 
which Goeppert, in the last number of the « Nova Acta ' of the German 
Academy (vol. xxxii.), gives the name of Aphjllostachis Jmjteriam. 
Dr. Gomes's specimen shows that the strohili were borne in whorls, 
though not so perfectly as Goeppert's tine specimens. 
We hope to present our readers with a translation of Dr. Goeppert's 
paper, when we shall at some length describe the structure of this sin- 
gular fruit, which we have been fortunate enough to determine from 
some beautiful specimens found by Mr. Binney. Dr. Gomes rightly 
refers it to Catamites and places that Order among the Cryptogams. 
The fossil referred by the author, with a query, to Cyperites, is cer- 
tainly a portion of the whorled foliage of a Catamites. It is to be 
desired that Dr. Gomes should either examine collections of the plants 
in our or other the Museums where this department of palaeontology 
has been attended to, or obtain a collection of named specimens for 
comparison with those that are discovered in Portugal. Much more 
among the fragments of fossil plants, which are all the materials a 
student has to work with, than in recent botany, where it is found ab- 
solutely necessary, must one examine the specimens which have been 
described by former authors. 
We trust the author will soon give us an account of the plants of 
the Secondary and Tertiary strata, for these are even more important 
than the palaeozoic fossils, inasmuch as the laws affecting the geogra- 
phical distribution of organisms become more apparent in the lower 
rocks ; and we may expect, consequently, some novel forms in deposits 
which have not yet been examined. " • u 
