224 Itoyal Society : — 



Yet, from an Ichthyological point of view, tiiis fish is an immense 

 height above the Sharks and Bays, and is far in advance, as a fish, 

 of the whole group of " Ganoids." 



The results of the gradational study of the fish-forms by the 

 zoologist, and of their secular study by the palfeontologist, are both 

 in harmony with morphological facts. Although the light obtained 

 is but as the first streak of dawn, yet it is a pleasant light, and quite 

 sufficient to show each kind of worker where and how to renew his 

 own special toil. 



I cannot close this brief abstract without remarking that my re- 

 searches in these, the highest types of animals, seem to me to be in 

 perfect accordance with the results obtained by long study of the 

 very lowest, the Rhizopods — namely, that they both yield increasing 

 evidence in favour of the doctrine of Evolution. 



Researches of this kind show what the life-processes can accom- 

 plish in the history of one individual animal, and also that the mor- 

 phological steps and stages are not arbitrary, but take place in a 

 manner in accordance with all that has of late been revealed to us of 

 the gradation of types in the ages that are past. 



June 20, 1872. — Sir James Paget, Bart., D.C.L., Yicc-Presidcnt, 

 in the Chair. 



" Notice of further Researches among the Plants of the Coal- 

 measures." By Professor W. C. Williamson, F.R.S. (in a Letter 

 to Dr. Sharpky, Sec. R.S. 



Fallowficld, May 3, 1872. 



My dear Dr. Shaupey, — In my memoir on Calamites, published 

 in the last volume of the 'Philosophical Transactions,' I gave two 

 figures of sections of a plant (plate 25. fig. IG and plate 28. fig. 39) 

 supposed to be a Calamite, but respecting the Calamitcan nature cf 

 which I expressed my doubts in a note at the foot of page 488. I 

 have now got numerous examples of this plant ; and it proves, as I 

 surmised, to belong to a distinct type. It has a branching stem, not 

 jointed, and having a remarkable pith. Since the latter organ, when 

 divided transversely, gives a star-shaped section, closely resembling 

 that of a Calamite, except that it has not been fistular, I propose 

 to give to the plant the generic name of Astromyelon. I have further 

 examined a series of curious stems which I described briefly at the 

 Edinburgh Meeting of the British Association under the name of 

 Bictyo.vylon radicans ; this plant I also find must be placed in a 

 new genus. It is characterized by possessing an exogenous, woody, 

 branching stem, composed of reticulated vessels. It has no ])itli ; 

 and its bark consists of cells arranged in columns perpendicular to 

 its surface. I think it not improbable that this has been the sub- 

 terranean axis of some other plant, since I have succeeded in tracing 

 its ultimate subdivisions into rootlets. I propose for the present to 

 recognize it by the generic name of Aiiiyelon. My specimens of this 

 plant are very numerous, some of them having been kindly sup- 

 plied to me by Messrs. Butterworth and Whittaker, of Oldham. 



