]-EBRUARY 4, 1897 | 
January 21.—‘*On Chetrostrobus, a New Type of Fossil 
Cone from the Calciferous Sandstones.” By D. H. Scott, 
te R.S., Hon. Keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory, Royal Gardens, 
Kew. 
The cone described was found at Pettycur, near Burntisland, 
Scotland, in 1883, by Mr. James Bennie, of Edinburgh. The 
horizon of the deposit in which it occurs is that of the Calci- 
ferous Sandstones, at the base of the Carboniferous Formation. 
The specimen is calcified, and its structure preserved with 
remarkable perfection, allowing of the investigation even of 
minute histological characters. 
The author is indebted to Mr. R. Kidston for the loan of 
his original sections of the cone, and for the opportunity of 
having additional sections prepared from the same block. No 
other specimen of the actual fructification is at present known, 
but a fragment of stem, of which sections are preserved in the 
Williamson Collection (now at the British Museum) appears to 
be the peduncle of a specifically identical cone. 
It is necessary to establish a new genus for the reception of 
this fossil; the generic name proposed is Cheérostrobus, in- 
tended to suggest the fa/maze division of the sporophyll lobes 
(xetp, hand). The species may be appropriately named Pe//y- 
curensts, from the locality where the important deposit occurs, 
which has yielded this strobilus, and so many other valuable 
specimens of paleozoic vegetation. The diagnosis may pro- 
visionally run as follows :— 
Chetrostrobus, gen. nov. 
Cone consisting of a cylindrical axis, bearing numerous 
compound sporophylls, arranged in crowded many-membered 
verticils. 
Sporophylls of successive verticils superposed. 
Each sporophyll divided, nearly to its base, into an inferior 
and a superior lobe ; lobes palmately subdivided into long seg- 
ments, of which some (probably the inferior) are sterile, and 
others (probably the superior) fertile, each segment consisting 
of an elongated stalk bearing a terminal lamina. 
Laminz of sterile segments foliaceous ; those of fertile seg- 
ments (or sporangiophores) peltate. 
Sporangia large, attached by their ends remote from the axis, 
to the peltate laminze of the sporangiophores. 
Sporangia on each sporangiophore, usually four. 
Spores very numerous in each sporangium. 
Wood of axis polyarch. 
C. Pettycurensis, sp. nov. 
Cone, 3—4 cm. in diameter, seated on a distinct peduncle. 
Sporophylls, twelve in each verticil. 
Each sporophyll usually sexpartite, three segments belonging 
to the inferior, and three to the superior, lobe. 
Sporangia densely crowded. 
Spores about 0°065 mm. in diameter. 
The new cone, though widely different from any forms of 
Vascular Cryptogams hitherto recorded, appears to have more in 
common with Sphenophyl/um—until now a perfectly isolated 
group of palaozoic plants—than with any other known genus. 
The sum of its characters justifies the suggestion that Chezvo- 
strobus may be provisionally placed in the same phy/urz, or 
main division of Pteridophyta, with Spherophyllum, though 
indications of possible affinities in other directions are not 
wanting, and will be discussed on another occasion. 
Chetrostrobus, even more than Sphenophyllum itself, appears 
to combine Calamarian with Lycopodiaceous characters, and 
might reasonably be regarded as a highly specialised represent- 
ative of an ancient group of plants lying at the common base 
of these two series. 
Mathematical Society, January 14.—Prof. Elliott, F.R.S., 
President, in the chair.—Prof. Sylvester, F.R.S., spoke on the 
partition of an even number into two primes, and answered 
numerous questions. —Mr., J. J. Walker, F.R.S.,gave asolution of 
a certain quadratic vector equation. —The titles of the following 
papers were read: ‘‘Supplementary Note on Matrices,” Mr. J. 
Brill; ‘‘Some Properties of Bessel’s Functions,’ Dr. Hobson, 
F.R.S.—Mr. T. I. Dewar exhibited, with the aid of stereoscopes, 
several diagrams of the algebraic catenary. 
Zoological Society, January 19.—Dr. St. George Mivart, 
F.R.S., Vice-President. in the chair.—The Secretary exhibited 
a set of seven slightly enlarged photographs, illustrating the 
manner in which the rough-keeled snake (Dasyfeltis scabra) 
swallows an egg. These had been taken from a living specimen 
in the Society's Gardens by Mr. R. F. Nesbit, by whom they 
had been presented to the Society. The specimen from which 
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NATURE 
330 
i 
the photographs had been taken, measuring about 28 inches in 
length, was also exhibited.—The Secretary also exhibited a 
specimen of the Cerastes viper (Cerastes cornutus), which had 
been received in exchange from the Zoological Gardens, Ghizeh, 
Egypt, and had lately died in the Gardens. This was the 
specimen, with false horns made of hedgehog spines, which had 
been alluded to in the newspapers of the last few weeks. On 
examination it was found that one of the spines had been driven 
through the skull into the mouth of the snake, and this had 
probably caused its death.—Mr. Sclater exhibited a photograph 
of a young anteater (AZyrmecophaga jubata) two days old, born 
in the Zoological Garden of Herr Adolf Nill at Stuttgart. Mr. 
Sclater remarked that this was the first instance, so far as he 
knew, of this animal having bred in captivity.—Lord 
Walsingham, F.R.S.. reada paper entitled ‘‘ A Revision of the 
West Indian Microlepidoptera, with Descriptions of New 
Species.” This memoir gave a complete catalogue of all the 
species of Microlepidoptera known to occur in the West Indian 
Islands. —Mr. F. E. Beddard, F.R S., read some notes on the 
anatomy of the manatee (A/anatus énunguzs) lately living in 
the Society’s Gardens.—Dr. Lindsay Johnson read a paper 
on the ophthalmoscopic appearances of the fundus oculi in the 
Primates. Dr. Johnson had for some considerable time past 
devoted himself to the careful examination of the eyes of 
animals, using the means commonly employed by oculists when 
examining the human eye. He had found that the back of the 
eye when viewed with the ophthalmoscope presented different 
appearances in various animals. He showed that the eye of 
| the negro only differed from that of the European in colour, 
that the higher apes closely resembled man in having binocular 
vision, and alone had the so-called macu/a /utea, or yellow 
spot, which is the seat of acute vision. In the lemurs and 
galagos the back of the eye differed entirely from that of the 
true monkeys, showing no macu/a. The galagos, which are 
night animals, had instead of a red or brown fundus a brilliant 
golden-yellow background to the eye.—Mr. Lydekker described 
certain deer of the Cervzs séca group, living in the Duke of 
Bedford’s Menagerie at Woburn.—A communication was read 
from Mr. Guy A. K. Marshall, on the butterflies of the genus 
Teracolus. The geographical distribution of the genus was 
described, and seventy-two species were enumerated, two of 
which were described as new. 
Entomological Society, January 20.—Sixty-fourth Annual 
Meeting.—Prof. R. Meldola, F.R.S., President, in the chair.— 
An abstract of the Treasurer’s accounts, showing a balance in the 
Society’s favour, having been read by one of the Auditors, the 
Secretary, Mr. H. Goss, read the Report of the Council. It 
was then announced that the following gentlemen had been 
elected as Officers and Council for 1897 :—President, Mr. 
Roland Trimen, F.R.S. ; Treasurer, Mr. Robert McLachlan, 
F.R.S. ; Secretaries, Mr. Walter F. H. Blandford and Mr. 
Frederic Merrifield ; Librarian, Mr. George C. Champion ; and 
as other members of the Council, the Rev. Canon Fowler, ” 
Mr. Herbert Goss, Sir George F. Hampson, Bart., Ierr 
Martin Jacoby, Prof. Meldola, F.R.S., Mr. Osbert Salvin, 
F.R.S., Mr. James W. Tutt, and Mr. G. H. Verrall. The 
President then delivered an address, and took for the subject, 
“The Utility of Specific Characters from the Point of View of 
the Darwinian Theory.” His remarks had reference to the 
paper on this subject, read last June before the Linnean Society, 
by Dr. A. R. Wallace, and the subsequent discussion. Prof. 
Meldola pointed out that the question of ‘‘utility,” as mecessi- 
tated by the theory of natural selection, had hitherto been made 
to depend too exclusively upon external and visibly manifest 
utility, a restriction which he did not believe to be warranted. 
by facts. He argued in favour of a connection of the nature of 
correlation between apparently trivial external characters and. 
latent physiological characters of great importance to the welfare: 
of the species. From this point of view it was contended that 
the diagnostic characters used for purposes of description did 
not truly represent the sum total of the characters which must 
be regarded as specific. The President concluded by referring 
to the losses by death during the year of several Fellows of the 
Society and other entomologists, special mention being made 
of Mr. A. S. Olliff, Mr. Edward Armitage, R.A., Mr. Peter 
Inchbald, Miss G. E. Ormerod, M. Auguste Sallé, Mr. 
Arthur Dowsett, Herr Julius Flohr, Mr. J. Chappell, and Dr. 
Morawitz.—A vote of thanks to the President was proposed by 
Lord Walsingham, F.R.S., seconded by Mr. Osbert Salvin, 
F.R.S., and carried. A vote of thanks to the officers was then 
