Fune 2, 1870] 
NATURE ee 
85 
place communicated with during that time was Gibraltar, 
and then only to receive a supply of provisions and water 
from the dockyard. The yellow fever unfortunately break- 
ing out at Gibraltar just before going there for this object, 
no communication could be had with the town, and the 
Stay was confined to from twenty-four to forty-eight hours. 
The zeal and ability with which this service was carried 
out by Capt. Manners, as witnessed by Sir George Sar- 
torius, there in command of the Portuguese Constitutional 
Squadron, and under whose orders in some degree the 
Britomart was placed, led to Capt Manners receiving 
his Post-rank on the 4th of March, 1829. He retired 
from active service in March 1849, became Rear-Admiral 
in July 1855, Vice-Admiral in April 1862, and Admiral 
in September 1865. 
Admiral Manners was the only child of the late Mr. 
Russell Manners, M.P., and married in 1834 Louisa Jane, 
daughter of Count de Noé, Peer of France, who survives 
him, and by whom he has two sons and a daughter. 
From the time he attained his Post-rank to the time 
of his death he devoted himself to scientific pursuits. He 
was elected a member of the Royal Astronomical Society 
in 1836. Ata very early period he took an active interest 
in its administration, and after being on the Council for 
some time, was elected one of the honorary secretaries in 
February 1848, an office which he filled until 1858, when 
he accepted that of Foreign Secretary. This was a post 
for which his knowledge of foreign languages and his 
position in society peculiarly fitted him, and during his 
tenure of office he formed by active correspondence a con- 
necting link between English and foreign astronomers. 
He was much esteemed abroad, so much so indeed that 
one of the presidents, in asking Admiral Manners to trans- 
mit one of the Society’s medals to a foreign recipient, 
deemed it just to preface his remarks with the following 
well-deserved compliment :— 
** Admiral Manners, —It has heen my good fortune to visit the 
majority of European Obseryatories, and to make the acquaint- 
ance of their directors and other gentlemen connected with them, 
and it has in consequence become known to me how high in their 
esteem our Foreign Secretary stands, Yoururbanity and promp- 
titude in carrying out our foreign business has indeed become 
proverbial.” 
Admiral Manners was, on more than one occasion, 
asked to accept the chair of President, which, after some 
hesitation, he consented to do, and he was elected to 
that position in 1868. None of his predecessors was 
more highly esteemed by the Fellows of the Society, and 
no one filled the chair more admirably than he did, His 
mathematical attainments were considerable, more so 
than one might be apt to infer from his quiet demeanour, 
He was well versed in the astronomical literature of the 
day, and took a deep interest in the progress of astro- 
nomical science, both in England and on the Continent ; 
and his active influence was always available for the pro- 
motion of any object connected with it. 
On presenting the gold medal of the Society to Mr. 
Stone, first assistant of the Royal Observatory, Green- 
wich,Admiral Manners delivered amostable and exhaustive 
summary of that able astronomer’s labours, and evinced a 
complete knowledge of the history of the solar parallax, 
for the investigation of which the medal was mainly 
awarded. Illness overtook him before he could complete 
his second year of office, and he was compelled to forego 
the gratification of delivering the address to M. Delaunay 
for his researches on the lunar theory ; but he made it a 
point of duty and pleasure to receive M. Delaunay at his 
house, and although he was compelled to delegate to the 
friendly hand of Prof. Adams the drawing up of the ad- 
dress, yet he read and approved of what was written before 
it was delivered. 
Admiral Manners in all his relations was a pure-minded, 
courteous, and sympathetic man, and in the fullest sense 
of the word a gentleman, 
THE PRIMITIVE VEGETATION OF THE 
EARTH 
Twenty years ago scarcely anything was known, even 
to those engaged in the study of vegetable fossils, of 
a land flora older than the great coal-formation. In 
1860, Goeppert, in his Memoir on the plants of the 
Silurian, Devonian, and Lower Carboniferous, mentions 
only one land plant, and this of doubtful character, in the 
Lower Devonian. In the Middle Deyonian he knew but one 
species ; in the Upper Devonian he enumerated fifty-seven, 
Most of these were European, but he included also such 
American species as were known to him. The paper of 
the writer on the Land Plants of Gaspé was published in 
1859, but had not reached Goeppert at the time when his 
memoir was written. This, with some other descriptions 
of American Devonian plants not in his possession, might 
have added ten or twelve species, some of them Lower 
Devonian, to his list. In the ten years from 1860 to the 
present time, the writer has been able to raise the 
Devonian flora of Eastern North America to 121 species, 
and reckoning those of Europe at half that number, we 
now have at least 180 species of land plants from the 
Devonian, besides a few from the Upper Silurian. We 
thus have presented to our view a flora older than that 
of the Carboniferous period, and, in many respects, dis- 
tinct from it ; and in connection with which many inte- 
resting geological and botanical questions arise. 
Geologists are aware that in passing backward in 
geological time from the modern to the Palzeozoic period, 
we lose, as dominant members of the vegetable kingdom, 
first, the higher phanogamous plants, whether exogenous 
or endogenous ; and that, in the Mesozoic period, the 
Acrogens, or higher cryptogams, represented by Ferns, 
Club-mosses, and Equiseta, share the world with the 
Gymnosperms, represented by the Pines and Cycads, 
while the higher phznogams on the one hand, and the 
lower cryptogams on the other, are excluded. Hence, 
the Mesozoic age has been called that of Gymno- 
sperms, while the Palaeozoic is that of Acrogens. These 
names are not, however, absolutely accurate, as we shall 
see that one of the highest forms of modern vegetation 
can be traced back into the Devonian; though the 
terms are undoubtedly useful, as indicating the preva- 
lence of the types above mentioned, in a degree not now 
observed, and a corresponding rarity of those forms which 
constitute our prevalent modern vegetation. 
It is my present object shortly to sketch the more re- 
cent facts of Devonian and Upper Silurian Botany, and to 
refer to a few of the general truths which they teach. 
The rocks called Devonian in Europe being on the hori- 
zon of the Erie division of the American geologists, which 
are much more fully developed than their representa- 
tives on the Eastern Continent, I shall use the term 
Eyrian as equivalent to Devonian, understanding by both 
that long and important geological age intervening be- 
tween the close of the Upper Silurian and the beginning 
of the Carboniferous. 
Just as in Europe the rocks of this period present a 
twofold aspect, being in some places of the character of a 
deposit of “ Old Red Sandstone,” and in others indicating 
deeper water, or more properly marine conditions, so in 
America, on a greater scale, they have two characters of 
development. In the great and typical A7zanz area, ex- 
tending for 700 miles to the westward of the Apalachian 
chain of mountains, these rocks, sometimes attaining to 
a thickness of 15,000 feet, include extensive marine 
deposits ; and except in their north-eastern border are 
not rich in fossil plants. In the smaller north-eastern 
area, on the other hand, lying to the eastward of the 
Apalachian range, they consist wholly of sandstones and 
shales, and are rich in plant remains while poor in marine 
fossils. Hence itis the Devonian of Gaspé, of New Bruns- 
wick, and of Maine, with that of eastern New York, 
