PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 33 



this view, and thought it would more likely prove to be an Alga. 

 It has since been examined by Mr. George Murray, the eminent 

 Cryptogamist, who decides it to be a green-spored Alga belonging 

 to the genus Caulerpa of the natural order Siphonese, a family profuse 

 in species, nearly all of which are exclusively natives of warm 

 climates. The genus it nearest approaches on the British coasts is 

 seen in Codum. This is an important addition to the marine botany 

 of the past. In the Palaeozoic rocks there are many markings, erron- 

 eously supposed to be remains of lower cryptogamic life, and named 

 Caulerpites, Confervites, Fucotes, &c., but which have been shown 

 by Nathorst and others to be in most cases no other than casual 

 impressions of miscellaneous objects, trails of animals, as they crept 

 along over the sea bottom. There are, however, certain fossil remains, 

 such as Nematophycus, from the Lower Devonians, which have been 

 described by Mr. Carruthers. The minute structure of this Alga 

 has been studied microscopically, and it is apparent that in those 

 far-off times, this gigantic Alga, resembling an Udote in structure, 

 flourished in the seas, attaining a bulk which may be measured by 

 feet. It was, indeed, a true marine tree. Besides this Alga, and 

 a few questionable forms such as Pachytlieca, we have only for 

 certain Pasycladea and fossil diatoms from the Tertiary Beds. 

 The theory of development demands the supposition that we have 

 in this Alga the least changed descendants of the earliest forms of life 

 that appeared on the globe ; but the testimony of the rocks shows 

 the reverse in this respect. I have the pleasure of exhibiting 

 to-day a specimen of this interesting Alga, Caulerpa Carrutliersii. 

 The last subject I venture to notice in connection with geology 

 is the discovery of the remains of the Saiga Antelope, Saiga 

 tartarica, Linn., found in a true Pleistocene river deposit, at 

 Orleans Road, Twickenham. It is the only species of the genus 

 known, and this is the first British record of its occurrence in a 

 fossil state. It inhabits the steppes of Eastern Europe and Western 

 Asia, reaching as far as the Volga. Formerly it ranged throughout 

 Western Europe. Horns are only present in the male. The 

 excavations I am now making at the Bagber kiln afford interesting 



