25 



borough, which is now either worked out or covered up. I hope 

 to show you some day that Dorset is even richer than this. I do not 

 like to speak very positively, but I think I have nearly 180 species 

 of Mollusca alone from my own neighbourhood, and I am sure the 

 list can be still further increased. I may take this opportunity of 

 saying that I should be thankful for specimens from Puncknowle 

 and other Dorsetshire sections, to add to the collection I am forming 

 for the museum at the King's School, Sherborne. 



The fossils themselves have some curious points of interest. As 

 regards the flora of that period our information is very limited. 

 Some curio us-looking branched but otherwise shapeless bodies may 

 have been the stems of large seaweeds, and pieces of drifted wood 

 I suppose coniferous are interesting, from the boring shells they 

 contain, sometimes in large quantities. A good specimen is to be 

 seen in the Sherborne Museum. 



Annelids and Zoophytes occur in small numbers j but there is a 

 considerable number of Echinodermata, which are better preserved, 

 however, in other parts of England especially in Wilts and North- 

 hampton, than they are near Sherborne. "Wright mentions as many 

 as 21 species in his beautiful monograph, issued by the Palseonto- 

 graphical Society. Another family of Echinodermata the first 

 order in the group (I mean the Crinoids) I merely mention, because 

 we had the opportunity, thanks to Mr. Damon, of seeing so magnifi- 

 cent a specimen of a recent species at Weymouth the Pentacrinus 

 Asteria. This genus, or other allied ones, existed in enormous abund- 

 ance in Silurian and Carboniferous ages. They are plentiful in the 

 Lias, as, for instance, the P. Briareus, of which splendid specimens 

 have been obtained at Lyme Regis. They became scarce in the chalks ; 

 scarcer still in the Tertiaries j and for a long time they were not 

 known as recent in any seas. Two species (P. Asteria and Mulleri) 

 were found in the last century in the seas of the Antilles, and about 

 20 specimens sent to Europe, but there were only two good ones 

 among them. Recently, one of our members, Mr. Damon, whose 

 name is so well known in connection with Natural Science, has suc- 

 ceeded in obtaining several very fine specimens from Guadeloupe. 



In 1823 Mr. J. S. Thompson thought he had discovered a Pentacri- 

 nite in our own seas, and called it P. Europeus. It was afterwards 

 found to be only the young form of a well-known star fish the 

 Comatula rosea, the rosy feather star, which at first is attached to a 



