360 
NATURE 
[NOVEMBER 20, 1913 
The author directed attention to certain surfaces of 
Uriconian rocks which have been ground smooth, 
and where hardest highly polished. 
Mr. V. C. Illing directed attention to certain 
recent discoveries in the Stockingford Shales near 
Nuneaton, which tend to show that the Cambrian 
succession in that area is almost, if not quite, com- 
plete. The author correlates the beds as follows :— 
Merevale Shales. Lower Tremadoc. 
Rena 
.c A | Ffestiniog. 
Oldbury Shales | Maentwrog. 
Menevian. 
Upper Purley Shales | ; 
Middle Purley Shales | Menevian ? 
Lower Purley Shales | 
Hartshill Quartzite | Taconian. 
The same author, under the title of ‘‘Notés on 
certain Trilobites found in the Stockingford Shales,” 
described numerous forms, representing young stages 
in the development of certain trilobite genera, includ- 
ing Liostracus, Holocephalina, and Paradoxides, to- 
gether with certain new forms of Agnostus. 
The classification of igneous rocks formed the sub- 
ject of a communication by Dr. H. Warth. The 
classification proposed was a chemical one, and was 
based, not upon the proportions of individual bases, 
but upon the respective sums of bases of equal valency. 
Tables and diagrams were shown in illustration of 
the paper. 
Copper in the sandstones of Exmouth was recorded 
by Mr. C. Carus-Wilson. Copper-carbonate was 
found in certain sandstones between the Exmouth 
golf links and the High Lands of Orcombe. Its pre- 
sence is due to copper pyrites, which is one of the 
constituents of the sandstone, and is undergoing 
decomposition. : 
Dr. A. Hubert Cox and Prof. O. T. Jones described 
several occurrences of pillow lavas in Wales. The 
lavas were in some cases associated with chert and 
jasper. 
Dr. A. Hubert Cox described certain igneous rocks 
of Ordovician age, and suggested that the Ordovician 
igneous rocks would appear to afford a favourable 
ground for ascertaining whether the connection be- 
tween rock-types and types of earth-movement holds 
good to a greater extent than has been hitherto sug- 
gested, and we may perhaps expect that further re- 
search will show some constant difference between 
the facies of the igneous rocks in areas where subsi- 
dence was continuous, and the facies in areas where 
subsidence was interrupted by uplift. 
Prof. W. S. Boulton described and exhibited a new 
form of machine for cutting thin sections of rocks. 
The machine is electrically-driven, and can be con- 
nected with any ordinary incandescent lamp-carrier 
on the house circuit. A special arrangement for auto- 
matic lubrication of the cutting edge is provided, and 
also a new device for arming the disc. 
Mr. C, H. Cunnington read a paper on the Carbon- 
iferous Limestone at the head of the Vale of Neath, 
South Wales. 
A special series of Excursions was organised by 
Prof. Lapworth, Prof. Boulton, and Mr. Frank Raw, 
and many places of geological interest were thus 
thrown open to the members. The excursions in- 
cluded the Licky Hills and the Clents, under the 
leadership of Prof. Lapworth; Nuneaton and Ather- 
stone, Prof. Watts and Mr. Illing; The Wrekin, 
Prof. W. S. Boulton; and Witley and the Lutley 
Valley, Mr: H. Kay and Mr. W. H. Foxall. There 
was also an excursion to Cheltenham in conjunction 
with the Cheltenham Natural Science Society, under 
the leadership of Mr. L. Richardson. 
NO, 2299, VOL. 92] 
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| structure. 
post, and the premier coal-producing country in thea 
At the conclusion of the meeting, Prof. Lapwort! ; 
conducted a three days’ excursion into South Shrop- 
shire, and a number of members availed themselves _ 
of the opportunity of visiting this classic district unde 
the guidance of one who has done so much to elucidate 
its complex structure and the relationship of its older 
sediments. AS Ros 
AND ITS 
Zi 
PALAEOBOTANY: ITS PAST \h 
FUTURE 
Pees ObOTANY has already passed through three ~ 
main phases of its development: the first, when — 
fossil plants were supposed to be the spontaneous 
ornamentations of stones by an exuberant nature 
which blindly disported itself. The second, when they 
were realised as being the remains. of extinct life, — 
but were described without the light of a fundamental — 
and unifying hypothesis; and the third, when a scien- 
tific knowledge of their structure made comparison — 
with recent plants possible, and it was realised that 
they threw light on the evolution both of the living — 
plants and the existing continents. In this phase we 
are now at work. 
Even at a time when the true nature of animal — 
fossils was realised, and their occurrence causing — 
much discussion, references to plants were few. John — 
Ray wrote in 1693 :—‘‘ Yet I must not dissemble, that — 
there is a Phawnomen in nature, which doth some- — 
what puzzle me to reconcile with the prudence obsery- — 
able in all its works, and seems strongly to prove, — 
that nature doth sometimes ludere, and delineate 
Figures, for no other end but for the Ornamentation 
of some Stones, to entertain and gratifie our Curio- 
sitie or exercise our Wits. That is, those elegant ~ 
Impressione of the Leaves of Plants upon Cole-Slate.”” 
The lecturer read quotations from a number of — 
little-known books written between 1693 and 1781,, — 
illustrating the importance of fossil plants to those — 
authors who took the flood as a fact, and were — 
puzzled to account for the existence of plants at all on 
the earth—for only the animals had been preserved — 
in Noah’s Ark. Among pioneers of Palzobotany, it 
is interesting to discover the mystic Swedenborg, who — 
published the first plates of fossil plants in Sweden, a 
country now famous in palzobotany through Prof. — 
Nathorst’s work. 
At the beginning of the nineteenth century, palzo- 
botany suddenly became scientific. The works of 
Brongniart, Sternberg, Schlotheim, and others created — 
a new epoch in the science. In 1828 Sprengel de- — 
scribed silicified fern stems from their anatomical — 
In 1833 Witham published his book on — 
“The Internal Structure of Fossil Vegetables,” and ~ 
this was shortly followed by a large work giving Re 
beautiful drawings of the anatomy of Psaronius and 
other fossils by Corda. F 
As a forerunner of the newer type of work which — 
crystallised round Williamson, one may here place ~ 
Sir Joseph Hooker, who was much interested in and — 
published several valuable papers on the structure of — 
fossil plants, and who held from 1846 to 1848 the : 
official post of botanist to the Geological Survey. — 
The post has lapsed for all these years, and to-day, — 
when the surveys of other civilised countries have — 
their official paleobotanists, it would be interesting 
to know why England, the first to originate the — 
world, should be minus so valuable a servant. Con-— 
cerning the extreme value and originality of Prof. 
Williamson’s work, little need be said. He may justly 
1 From an inaugural lecture delivered at University College (University 
of London) on October 17, by Dr. Marie C. Stopes. é 
