Oeolo(]ical Society. 295 



Oolites. Trunks, pith-casts, etc. Much I ^nd Maryland, 



folia^o of various typos. Wil- I C. jenneyana, 

 liamsonia gigds and other fruit- I ^' '^ngens, 

 impressions. J <^- ^nelandi, etc. 



W. scotica. 



WiUiamsoniella coronata. 1 Rich impressions in 

 • I Mexico of William- 

 Li a.H. Foliage and Williamsonia f g„,^if^ a^j m^ny 



fruits (India). J fyii^gg genera. 



R life tic. Wielandiella angustifolia and foliage. 



The group is by far the most characteristic of all the plants of 

 the Jurassic and Lower Cretaceous, during which periods its 

 distribution was almost world-wide. It was locally, if not univer- 

 sally, dominant, and was the most highly evolved plant-group of 

 the epoch of which we are cognizant. 



Three chief points of interest are to be noted in the geological 

 distribution of these plants : (a) that the most numerous highly- 

 specialized trunks reach their maximum in the Jurassic and Lower 

 Cretaceous Periods, when their distribution was practicall}^ world- 

 wide ; (b) that the oldest and therefore presmnably the most 

 primitive type, WieJaiidlella, is externally less like the living cycads 

 than the commoner later forms, while these latter are utterly unlike 

 the living genera in their fructifications ; (c) that the geologically 

 youngest cone is the largest yet discovered, occurring in the Grault 

 when the extinction of the group appears already to have set in. 



Contrar}'' to what might have been anticipated from their 

 external likeness to the living Cycads, coupled with their great 

 geological age, the fossil ' Cycads ' are much more complex and on 

 a higher level of evolution than the living grovip. It seems to the 

 Author to be extremely unlikely that the fossil and the living forms 

 have any direct phylogenetic connexion nearer than a remote, 

 unknown, common ancestor. The mooted connexion between the 

 fossil ' Cycads ' and the Angiosperms is highly suggestive, but lacks 

 data for its establishment. 



A short discussion followed, and the thanks of the Fellows 

 present were accorded to Dr. Stopes for her lecture. 



January lOfh, 1917.— Dr. Alfred Harker, F.R.8., Tresident, 

 in the Chair. 



The following communication was read: — 



' Balston Expedition to Peru : Report on Graptolites collected 

 ])V Capt. J. A. Douglas, K.E., F.G.S.' By Ciiarles Lapworth, 

 LL.D., M.Sc, F.K.S., F.G.S. 



The specimens of graptolites were collected from the rocks of 

 \\\e Inambari district in Peru by Capt. Douglas, under whose name 



