32 PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS.- 



Swanage. It was formerly classified by Sir Richard Owen with 

 the flat, carapaced paludine family, Pleurosternon, from which 

 genus it differs in having a distinctly emarginate nuchal, and very 

 broad vertebral shields, their width exceeding twice their length. 

 This species has been found also in the Hastings beds of Worthing, 

 and must have shared the muddy slimes of the "Wealden estuary with 

 the Iguanodon. Another confirmation of the affinity of the Purbeck 

 fauna with that of the Wealden has lately been made by Mr. 

 Charles Dawson, F.G.S., who has found mammalian remains in an 

 irregular bone-bed in the Medhurst clays near Hastings. The tooth 

 shows the double root and a tritoral crown of the multituberculate 

 Microlestes pattern, similar to the hinder lower molar of 

 Plagiaulax but much larger than that of any other known species. 

 It is remarkable, too, for having been extremely worn during the 

 life of the animal. Mr. A. Smith Woodward has provisionally 

 named it Plagiaulax Daivsoni. A new Lizard allied to the family 

 Sphenodontidse was found last year in the Middle Purbecks 

 of Swanage, only one member of this sub-order, Patteria, 

 (Splienodon) of New Zealand, is known to exist. The 

 family is characterised by the presence of a single tooth on 

 either side of the premaxillary beak, which was not sheathed 

 jn horn. This is a valuable addition to the reptilian remains of 

 the County. A fine series of cervical vertebra of a 

 Cimoliosaurus, from the Upper Portland beds of the Verne, 

 Portland, has lately been lent to the Museum. It belongs probably 

 to the same species as that of the paddle in the British Museum, 

 named by Sir Richard Owen, Pliosaurus portlandicus. The slab 

 of limestone contains about forty centra with portions of the 

 neural spines visible. It will be worth while to have some of the 

 matrices uncovered and the bones exposed. I should not be 

 surprised if portions of the head may not be recovered in this 

 way. Mr. Carruthers, F.R.S., Keeper of the Botanical Department 

 of the British Museum, showed me a piece of Kimmeridge clay, which 

 had been sent him by the late Mr. Damon, who supposed that the 

 fossil was an equisetaceous plant. We did not concur with him in 



