the surrounding aluminous beds. The various 

 papers by our Secretary add much to the 

 value of the volume, especially that of the " Worked 

 Flints," illustrated by two plates, with representations 

 of twenty individuals. The plates accompanying the 

 Professor's notes upon the Portisham cromlech are 

 from drawings by the artistic hand of Mrs. Colfox. I 

 must not omit Mr. J. J. Buckman's (the Professor's 

 son) paper upon the genus Astarte, with two 

 plates and seven paginal figures, describing no less than 

 fifteen species and three sub-species, many not before 

 described. We hail the youthful contributor with 

 pleasure and joy. 



The most ancient condition of the earth consisted in 

 extensive seas ; the land was then confined to islands 

 with a special and simple vegetation, while the seas 

 were peopled with various marine tribes, some living, 

 as now, at great depths, some near the coasts, and 

 others between high and low water-mark. The presence 

 of graphite, a nearly pure carbonaceous substance, which 

 occurs in the laurentian beds, prove a vegetation then, 

 in some abundance. The first animal, Eozoon 

 Canadense occurs in this very early palaeozoic rock. 

 A large alga, Cruziana D'orb., of considerable height, 

 with fronds upon a thick cartilagenous stem, grew in 

 the lower silurian seas. The most ancient land-plant 

 known is a fem^Eopteria Morierei, somewhat resembling 

 Cydopteris of the coal-measures, but with this differ- 

 ence, the stipes of the frond bear unequal sized and 

 irregularly arranged pinnules ; it was found in the 



