450 Miscellaneous. 



nothing but mention of a set of placoid teeth, upper and under, of 

 a species oi Myliohatis, Avhich I remember to have extracted from 

 the remnants of another old dried Eay on the beach at the same time, 

 and which I finally deposited in Prof. Huxley's hands in the Museum 

 of Economic dleology. AVhat became of the piece of ^L/riosfeon I 

 have forgotten altogether. 



But that it (Ud come from the snout of a Hay, and not of a Prisiis, 

 the little preparation I now send you seems to confirm. 



In this in'cparation (taken from a young Thornback, Avhich I 

 found on the beach at Budlcigh-Saltcrtou on the 12th May) you 

 Avill see your Myriosfeon in miniature. 



If yon hold it up between you and the light, you will see, halfway 

 up, on its surface the radiated osselet structures with a common 

 lens, and with a higher power the veritable osselet structure of 

 your Myviosteon. 



Now, if ,'you look into the cavity of the craniimi (a portion of 

 which still adheres to the snout), you mil observe that this cavity 

 is continued on into the Myriosfeon ; and a Kttle imagination will 

 enable you to see that this cavity represents the cribriform plate of 

 the ethmoid bone prolonged into a conical tube, the holes of which, 

 for the issue of the olfactory nerves, may be the holes which exist 

 on each side of yoiir Myriosteon Jfiyyinsii. 



Geoyraphical Distrihuilon of Australian Whales. 



I have just received a pair of the eai-bones of Poescopia Novx 

 Zelandice and some blades of the baleen of Balama marginata, 

 direct from the sea near Swan Ilivcr, showing that both these spe- 

 cies are common to the west coast of Australia and New Zealand. — 

 J. E. Gray. 



On the Structure of a Fern-stem from the Lower Eocene of Heme Bay, 

 and on its Allies, recent and fossil. By "VV. Carritthees, Esq., 

 r.L.S., F.G.8. 



The author described the characters of the fossil-stem of a Fern 

 obtained by George Dowker, Esq., E.G.S., from the beach at Heme 

 Bay, and stated that in its structure it agreed most closely with the 

 living Osnmnda regalis, and certniuly belonged to the Osmundacea?. 

 The broken petioles show a single crescentic vascular bxnidlc. The 

 section of the triie stem shows a Avhite parenchymatous medulla, a 

 narrow vascular cylinder interrupted by long slender meshes from 

 which the vascular bundles of the petioles spring, and a parenchy- 

 matous cortical layer. The author described the arrangement of 

 these parts in detail, and indicated their agreement with the same 

 parts in Osmunda regalis. He did not venture to refer the Eern, to 

 which this stem had belonged, positively to the genus Osmunda, 

 but preferred describing it as an Osmundifes, under the name of 

 0. JJowJceri. The specimen was silicified : and the author stated that 



