36 
former, but, for the most part, under distinct specific forms ; 
that the Erian possesses some genera of its own, and that many 
Carboniferous genera haye not yet been recognised in the 
Erian. There is also great local diversity in the Erian flora, 
conveying the impression that the conditions affecting the 
growth of plants were more varied, and the facilities for migra- 
tion of species less extensive than in the Carboniferous. 
In comparing the Erian flora of America with the Devonian 
of Europe, we meet with the difficulty that little is known of the 
plants of the Lower and Middle Devonian in Europe. ‘There 
are, however, specimens in the Museum of the Geological 
Survey which show, in connection with facts which can be 
gleaned from the works of continental writers, that Psi/ophyton 
occupied the same important place in Europe which it did in 
America ; and in the Upper Devonian the generic forms are very 
similar, though the species are, for the most part, different. 
In Eastern America no land flora is known below the Upper 
Silurian ; and even in that series the plants found are confined 
to the genus Psi/ophyton. Independently, however, of the some- 
what doubtful Lower Silurian plants stated to have been found 
in Europe, there are indications, in the Lower Erian flora, that it 
must have been the successor of a Silurian flora as yet almost 
unknown to us ; and the line of separation between this old flora 
and that of the Devonian proper, seems to be at the base of the 
Middle Devonian. 
In applying these facts and considerations to the questions 
relating to the introduction and extinction of species, and the 
actual relations of successive floras, it was proposed to compare 
what might be called specific types, that is, forms which in any 
given period could not be rationally supposed to be genetically 
related. Of these specific types, at least fifty may be reckoned 
in the Erian flora ; of these, only three or four are represented 
in the Carboniferous by identical species, while about one half 
are represented by allied species. he remainder have no 
representatives. 
A Table of specific types of the Erian was given, and its bear- 
ing shown on the questions above referred to; and the hope 
was expressed that by separating such types from doubtful species 
and varietal forms, some progress might be made towards under- 
standing, at least, the times and conditions in which specific types 
were introduced and perished, and the range of varietal forms 
through which they passed. 
Royal Institution, May 9.—Sir Henry Holland, Bart., 
F.R.S., president, in the chair.—T. W. Boord, F.S.A., Miss 
Eliza Bowman, Miss Margaret Graham, Rev. Brenchley Kings- 
ford, M.A., H. F. Makins, R. Heber Prance, the Earl of Rosse, 
T.R.S., the Hon. Capt. R. Talbot, M.P., the Hon. P. S. 
Wyndham, M.P., were elected members of the Royal Institution. 
John Tyndall, LI..D., F.R.S., was re-elected as Professor of 
Natural Philosophy. 
Geological Society, April 27.—R. A. C. Godwin-Austen, 
F.R.S., vice-president, in the chair. The following communi- 
cations were read:—1. ‘*On the species of rhinoceros whose 
remains were discovered in a fissure-cavern at Oreston in 1816.” 
liy George Busk, F.R.S., F.G.S. The object of this paper was 
to show that the rhinoceros whose remains were discovered by 
Mr. Whidbey in a fissure-cavern at Oreston, near Plymouth, in 
the year 1816, and described by Sir Everard Home in the 
‘*Philosophical Transactions” for 1817, belonged, not as has 
hitherto been supposed by every one exceptthe late Dr. Falconer, 
to Rhinoceros tichorhinus, butto Kh. leptorhinus, Cuv. (R. mega- 
vhinus, Christol). The remains in question are in the Museum of 
the Royal College of Surgeons, and consist of between thirty and 
forty, more or less, broken portions of the teeth, and of numerous 
bones of the skeleton. The greater number being hardly in a 
condition to afford satisfactory diagnostic specific characters, the 
yemarks in the paper were limited to the teeth and to a perfect 
metacarpal bone, which appeared amply safficient for the pur- 
pose. The teeth mainly relied upon were the first or second 
upper molars ( or m*) of the right and left sides. Both the 
teeth were broken, but what was wanting in one was supplied by 
the other. The characters exhibited were shown to be unlike 
those of 2. éichorhinus, and quite in accordance with those of 2. 
eptorhinus. These were the thinness and smoothness of the 
enamel, the configuration of the dorsal surface, the form and 
size of the columns, and the disposition and relations of the 
“‘uncus” and “fecten” (‘“ crochet” and ‘anterior combing- 
plate) ;”” and the consequent absence of the characteristic ‘* ¢icho- 
rhine pit” ox fossette. The less strongly marked characters by 
which the teeth could be distinguished from those of 2. hemite 
NATURE 
[May 12, 1870 
chus, Fale., and &. elruscus, Falc., were also pointed out. The — 
metacarpal bone selected for the illustration of the diagnosis is 
9} inches long, and remarkable for the compression of the shaft 
and its comparative slenderness, as contrasted with the same bone 
in RX. tichorhinus, specimens of which were exhibited on the table, 
and which, in no case within the author’s knowledge, ever ex- 
ceeds 74 or 8 inches in length, and is proportionately much — 
thicker than in 2. /epforhinus or any other extinct species. The 
size and form of the bone also showed that the species could not 
be either 2. hemitechus or KR. etruscus, for although the means of 
direct comparison with the third metacarpal of those species did 
not, to the author's knowledge, exist in London, its probable 
general dimensions and proportions could be deduced from those 
of the corresponding metatarsal, of which bone numerous speci- 
mens were available. It was further shown that the Oreston 
metacarpal exactly corresponded with those of 2. leptorhinus, 
from Grays Thurrock, in the British Museum. ‘The determina- 
tion of the species appears to be of considerable interest, inasmuch 
as it affords an additional instance of the occurrence in England 
of the great southern Rhinoceros. This is also the only example 
of the discovery of that species, except in river or other deposits, 
either in this country or on the Continent. The Chairman re- 
marked that at one time the Oreston A/inoceros was referred to 
R. tichorhinus, but that Buckland, although mentioning the 
Rhinoceros, never gave it a specificname. The Chairman also 
said that the Oreston fissures were not caves, but mere fissures 
which had been filled in ; an entire skeleton occurred at one spot, 
and the animal must have fallen in. Mr. Boyd Dawkins had 
been struck by the non-tichorhine character of the Oreston speci- 
mens some years since. He confirmed Prof. Busk’s determina- 
tion, and remarked that five British species of A/inoceros are 
known, namely: 1, 2. Schleiermacheri, from the Red Crag of 
Suffolk (in the Miocene at Darmstadt) ; 2. 2. e/rwscus, from the 
Forest Bed=R. Alerckii (Von Meyer) ; 3. 2. mevarhinus (Chris- 
tul) =/eptorhinus (Cuv.) ; but the latter name includes also R. 
etruscus and R. hemitechus ; so that the adoption of De Christol’s 
name gets rid of a difficulty ; 4. 2. hemitechus; and 5. R. ticho- 
rhinus = R. antiguitatis (Blum.). Prof. Busk, in reply, stated 
that Oreston was a fissure-cavern, and noticed the successive 
openings in 1816, 1821, and 1826. He did not agree with Mr. 
Boyd Dawkins in preferring the name megarhinus to Cuvier’s 
leptorhinus. He did not know of the occurrence of two species 
of Rhinoceros at Oreston. 
2. ‘On two Gneissoid series in Nova Scotia and New Bruns- 
wick, supposed to be the equivalents of the Huronian (Cam- 
brian) and Laurentian.” By H. Youle Hind, M.A. 
This paper described the relations of two gneissoid series in 
Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, which have hitherto been 
regarded as intrusive granites and syenites, and have been thus 
represented on the published geological maps of those provinces. 
The author considered that these gneisses were in the main of 
Laurentian age, the Huronian or Cambrian rocks occurring only _ 
in patches over a vast area of Laurentian porphyroid gneiss. 
The old gneiss was stated to be brought to the surface by three 
great undulations between the Atlantic coast of Nova Scotia and 
the Laurentian axis of America north of the St. Lawrence. 
These axes were rudely parallel to one another, and in the 
troughs which lay between them the Silurian, Devonian, and 
Carboniferous series eccurred in regular sequence, the New 
Brunswick Coal-field occupying the central trough. On the line 
of section, in the troughs to the north-west and south-east, the 
Lower Carboniferous was stated to be the highest rock series 
which has escaped denudation. ‘The gold-bearing rocks of Nova 
Scotia are of Lower Silurian age, and rest either on Huronian 
strata or, where these had been removed by denudation, on the 
old Laurentian gneiss, The gold is found chiefly in beds ot 
auriferous quartz of contemporaneous age with the slates and 
quartzites composing the mass of the series, which, in Nova 
Scotia, is 12,000 feet thick ; and the auriferous beds are worked, 
in one district or another, through a vertical space of 6,000 feet. 
Besides auriferous beds of quartz, intercalated beds and true 
veins are found to yield gold, and are worked. A series of sharp 
and well-defined anticlinals ridge the province of Nova Scotia 
from east to west, while another series of low broad anticlinals of 
much later date have a meridional course. At the intersection of 
these anticlinals the gold districts are situated, because there de- 
nudation has best exposed the upturned edges of the auriferous 
beds of quartz, and rendered them accessible, sometimes exposing 
also the underlying gneiss. Plans of Waverley and Sherbrooke 
gold districts were exhibited, showing the outcrop of the edges 
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