Miscellaneous. lib 



objective. The surface of the membrane (tympaniile of Lespc's) is 

 naked. It is strongly probable that this is an olfactory organ, and 

 placed on the underside of the palpi, next to the mouth, so as to 

 enable the insect to select its proper food by its odour, giving an 

 additional sensory function to the palpi of insects. There are no 

 special sense-organs in the antennae. 



Lespes, in his note on the auditory sacs which he says are found 

 in the antennae of nearly all insects, says that, as we have in in- 

 sects compound eyes, so we have compound ears. I might add that 

 in the abdominal appendages of the cockroach we have a comjiouad 

 nose. In the palpi of Perla, and the abdominal appendages of 

 Chrysopila, the " nose " is simple. 



On examination I have found sense-organs in both pairs of an- 

 tennae of Homarus americanus (the lobster), such as are described by 

 Farre, and also the more rudimentary form of supposed auditory 

 organs in the common spiny lobster {Palinurus) of Key West, 

 Florida. — American Naturalist, vol. iv. Dec. 1870. 



On the Carboniferous Flora of Bear Island (lat. 74° 30' N.). 

 By Professor Oswald Heer, F.M.G.S. 



The author described the sequence of the strata supposed to 

 belong to the Carboniferous and Devonian series in Bear Island, and 

 indicated that the plant-bearing beds occurred immediately below 

 those which, from their fossil contents, were to be referred to the 

 Mountain-limestone. He enumerated eighteen species of plants, 

 and stated that these indicated a close approximation of the flora to 

 those of Tallowbridge and Iviltorkau in Ireland, the greywacke of 

 the Yosges and the southern Black Forest, and the Vcrneuilii-skale^ 

 of Aix and St. John's, I^ew Brunswick. These concordant floras he 

 considered to mark a peculiar set of beds, which he proposed to 

 denominate the " Ursa-stage." The author remarked that the flora 

 of Bear Island has nothing to do with any Devonian flora, and that 

 consequently it and the other floras, which he regards as contempo- 

 raneous, must be referred to the Lower Carboniferoiis. Hence he 

 argued that the line of separation between the Carboniferous and 

 Devonian formations must be drawn below the yellow sandstones. 

 The presence of fishes of Old-Eed-Sandstone type in the overlying 

 slates he regarded as fui'uishing no argument to invalidate this con- 

 clusion. The sandstones of Parry Island and Melville Island are 

 also regarded by the author as belonging to the " Ursa-stage," 

 which, bj^ these additions, presents us with a flora of seventy-seven 

 species of plants. The author remarked upon the singularity of 

 plants of the same species having lived in regions so widelj^ separated 

 as to give them a range of 2<d^° of latitude, and indicated the rela- 

 tions of such a luxuriant and abundant vegetation in high northern 

 latitudes to necessary changes in climate and in the distribution of 

 land and water. — Proc. Geol. Sac. Nov. 9, 1870. 



