340 Count Gaston de Saporta on the Temperature 



are only slightly oblique, and the obliquity is outwards in front. 

 The lines on the elytra are more deeply engraved. 



This may be a sport of //. quadrilineatum; but the presence of 

 the two deep dorsal lines on the thorax warrants one at least in 

 regarding it as distinct until a greater series of specimens en- 

 ables us to see whether there are any passages between the one 

 and the other or not. 



I have called it after my friend Mr. Frederick Smith. I have 

 only seen one specimen. 



. 5. Hedarthrum simplex, 



H, quadrilineato affinis ; elytris linea suturali et marginali apice 



conjunctis et lineis duabus medio. 

 Long. 34-4^ lin., lat. |-1 lin. 



Similar to H. quadrilineatum ; but it has not the line or stria 

 on the elytra next the sutural stria ; the sutural stria is further 

 from the suture than in it, leaving a wider sutural space. It 

 might be called trilineatum, if we were not to reckon the marginal 

 stria, as H. quadrilineatum is only four-lined if we do not reckon 

 the marginal stria ; reckoning that stria, it is five-lined. Here 

 there is first the sutural stria, next two close on the middle, and 

 lastly the marginal stria out of sight round the corner. 



The antennae of the male are remarkably and gradually thick- 

 ened in the middle — a character not peculiar to it, but present 

 in other species. 



[To be continued.] 



XLIX. — On the Temperature of Geological Periods, from indica- 

 tions derived from the observation of Fossil Plants. By the 

 Count Gaston de Saporta. 



[Concluded from p. 282.] 



§ 2. Examination of the Genera peculiar to the Northern Tem- 

 perate Zone observed in the Ancient Floras. 



The genera to the investigation of which I now advance are 

 for the most part those which we have still before our eyes. It 

 is to them that our indigenous vegetation owes its character : 

 they seem to be adapted to the conditions of our temperature ; 

 and consequently it would appear that they must have com- 

 menced at the period when this was definitively estabhshed. I 

 shall show that this is not the case, and that, from causes which 

 we can as yet only appreciate very imperfectly, their existence 

 in the past ascends far beyond the time when the European 

 climate became similar to what it is at present. 



