316 



district may be exhibited, while they should " not be so numerous as to 

 render definite limits unattainable, or otherwise obstruct the scheme 

 in its practical working." The author observes that " any mode of 

 division adopted must always be liable to controversy," but that he 

 himself believes "about 110 sections would suffice for the proposed 

 object." 



" This object being accomplished, the next requisite for ascertaining with accura- 

 cy the productions of the earth, is to procure specimens of these from every section 

 wherein they occur, along with full particulars relative to their condition ; and to re- 

 cord those particulars in such methodical array as to make them directly available for 

 the purpose intended. To carry on this process efficiently, however, I ccmsider it es* 

 sential that the information should be registered immediately on being obtained, or at 

 least as soon thereafter as possible, both that the rapid accumulation of objects in a 

 general collection may not interrupt the regularity of procedure ; and because I con- 

 ceive that a material saving of labour will always be effected by disposing of these ob- 

 jects at once, and singly as they occur." — p. 42. 



Mr. Brand considers that the best mode of rendering Natural-His- 

 tory collections easily available, is to record the species in a tabular 

 form under an alphabetical arrangement, employing certain simple 

 signs or marks to indicate all the information obtained respecting them. 

 The author is of opinion that the adoption of this mode of arranging 

 and registering all known facts and circumstances connected with ob- 

 jects of Natural History, must eventually lead to the highest practical 

 results. 



VI. Description of Pothocites Grantonii; anew Fossil Vegetable from the Coal 

 Formation. By Robert Paterson, M.D., &c.. Extraordinary Mem- 

 ber of the Royal Medical Society, and one of the Council of the Werne- 

 rian Natural History Society of Edinburgh, ^c. ^c. Communicated 

 by the President. 

 The fossil which is the subject of the present paper "was found in 

 a mass of bituminous shale, from the coal strata which are exposed 

 along the coast at Granton." The specimen here described and fi- 

 gured is the only one met with during a long-continued series of re- 

 searches in the locality wherein it occurred ; and it appears to con- 

 stitute an entirely new fossil genus. 



At first sight the figure (which is of the natural size) appears to 

 represent about three inches of the lower part of a catkin of Typha 

 angustifolia, attached to a portion of the stem. On a closer inspec- 

 tion, however, it is seen to differ materially from the fertile catkin of a 

 Typha, for in that genus there is no other floral envelope than the 

 hairs surrounding the pedicel of the pericarp ; whereas on the expo- 

 sed surface of the fossil are four longitudinal series of bodies, each of 



