BihliograpMcal Notices. 167 



turned up in Northumberland, and a new species (reticulatus) of 

 UrocordyJus, both Labyrinthodont Ampliibians of the Coal-measures ; 

 and Messrs. Hancock and Atthey describe them in full. They also 

 give a detailed account and careful figures (plates 7 & 8) of some 

 remarkable little bodies, from the black shales of the coal-measures, 

 which, after an exhaustive examination, they determine to be fossil 

 Fungi — five species (or vai-ieties ?) of a genus they name Arduujn- 

 ricon, and which they demonstrate to be closely allied to the Indian 

 Sclerotium st'qiitatmn of Berkeley and Currey. These papers have 

 already appeared in the ' Annals.' 



Mr. Kirkby corrects, with the latest views and nomenclature, the 

 description given by Messrs. Baker and Tate of the Permian forma- 

 tion of Durham. Sir W. C. Trevelyan observes that the well-pre- 

 served trunk of an oak, found in the Boulder-clay between the 

 Lindenshaw and Cocker Burns, "is an indication, I think, that the 

 whole of the country had not been covered with ice " in the Glacial 

 Period, " but that there were parts free from it, on one of which 

 this tree was growing." He also draws other interesting inferences 

 therefrom. The Meteorological and Climatological Reports for 1869, 

 by the Eev. R. F. Wheeler, month by month, for definite localities 

 in the district, and with general notices also, occupy more than 100 

 pages, are most elaborate and praiseworthy, full of both scientific 

 and popular information, and form necessarily a very valuable por- 

 tion of the volume. 



The second of the works under notice is worthy of high considera- 

 tion as the result of the second year's existence and labours of a new 

 Naturalists' Society, following (like many others, we are happy to 

 say) the examples of the Berwickshire, Tyneside, and other Field- 

 Clubs of long standing and good I'epute. The 120 pages of the 

 Cardiff Natuialists' Transactions show that they have not been idle 

 during 1868-69 ; and, though they have not added much that is 

 new to science, they have been preparing themselves for accurate 

 work by learning from Mr. Vivian what may be done with the mi- 

 croscope in mineralogy and metallurgy, and from Mr. G. C. Thomp- 

 son and their president, Mr. W. Adams, what the real objects of 

 their Society should be ; whilst other members have collected in- 

 formation for them in papers and lectures on miscellaneous subjects. 

 The outdoor meetings have taken the members to many interesting 

 localities of botany, geology, and archceology, and have resulted in 

 valuable notes on such objects of interest at the Cefn On tunnel and 

 Caerphilly, at Southerndowu, Ewenny, and Dunraven, and at Caer- 

 leon and Newport. At Southerndowu, in a lecture on " the prime- 

 val rivers of Britain," Prof. T. Rupert Jones, of Sandhurst, descanted 

 on the " fluviatile and lacustrine strata" met with among the British 

 formations ; and Mr. Franklen G. Evans, of Cardiff, described the 

 occurrence of two peculiar siliceous stones found in a coal-seam, and 

 other interesting facts. Mr. Evans has also supplied to this volume 

 of Transactions a monthly Meteorological Report for 1869 ; and a 

 large lithograph rain-gauge map, including Swansea, Merthyr Tydfil. 

 Abergavenny, Newport, Cardiff, tfec., and serving well to show the 



