458 
NATURE 
[April 6, 1871 

diately afterwards. When heated with concentrated sulphuric 
acid it dissolves, forming a deep yellow solution, which deposits 
crystals on cooling, and is immediately precipitated by water. It 
dissolves in hot strong nitric acid with evolution of nitrous fumes 
and formation of oxalic acid. Like picric_acid, when treated 
with calcium hypochlorite it yields chloropicrin at the ordinary 
temperature. Its aqueous solutions are coloured dark brown by 
ferric chloride, and completely precipitated by lead subacetate. 
The analysis of the substance dried at 100 C. was made with 
the following results derived from three experiments :— 

Theory I. Ill. II. Mean. 
C, = 84 = 32°43 32°58 32°63 32°68 32°63 
Pie eG alos 2°06 218 2°03 2°09 
N,= 42 = 16°22 ate . 20 
O, = 128 = 49°42 
259 100'00 
These results correspond to the formula C,H, (NO,); Oy 
that of trinitro-orcin. It is a powerful acid, much resembling 
picric acid, but distinguished from the latter by the greater solu- 
bility of its salts. I propose, therefore, to call this new substance 
trinitro-orcinic acid. The preparation and composition of a 
large number of compounds of the acid were then detailed. 
Geological Society, March 22.—Prof. John Morris, Vice- 
President, in the chair. Messrs. A. R. Selwyn, Director of the 
Geological Survey of Canada; J. Bridges Lee, the Rev. 
Thomas Robert Willacy, B.A., and James Putnam Kimball, 
Ph.D, New York, were elected Fellows of the Society. The 
following communications were read: 1. ‘*On_ the Passage 
Beds in the neighbourhood of Woolhope, Herefordshire, 
and on the discovery of a new species of Lurypterus, and 
some new Land-plants in them.” By the Rev. P. B. 
Brodie, M.A., F.G.S. The author described as the “ passage- 
beds” between the Silurian and Old Red Sandstone formations 
near Woolhope, a series of shales and sandstones, which at 
Perton attain a thickness of about 17 feet. Here the section 
includes, in descending order :—(1) Thin-bedded sandstones ; 
(2) Dark brownish shales; (3) Yellow sandstone ; (4) Olive shales ; 
(5) Thin bedded-sandstone ; (6) Olive shales, similar to No. 4. 
At some localities vegetable remains (Lycopodites, and perhaps 
Psilophyton) occur in the olive shales, which also contain several 
Crustacean fossils, including Pteryyotus Banksii and a new species 
of Lurypterus, named by Mr. Woodward £, Brodiez. Upon 
this species, Mr. Woodward presented a note supplementary 
to Mr. Brodie’s paper. Mr, Duncan inquired whether any meta- 
morphoses had been recognised among the Eurypteridz, and, 
if so, whether the variation in the thoracic plates mentioned by 
Mr. Woodward might be connected with them. Mr. Woodward, 
in reply, remarked on the ditficulty of distinguishing even the 
sexes in Eurypteridz. The thoracic plate in the fossils resembled 
that of Ziu/us, and the variety might be connected with sex. 
In some S¥imonie from Lesmahago the only difference to be found 
was in the thoracic plate, and it had been suggested that this was 
due to difference of sex. He had already suggested that the 
small Prerygotus and the great S/imonia might be only the male 
and female forms of the same species. On fragmentary remains 
it was, however, unsafe to attempt to base species; but he 
thought Zurypterus Brodiet was a well-marked species. Rev. E. 
Winwood inquired whether there was any evidence as to Zuyf- 
terus being freshwater or marine. The chairman observed that 
the seeds fiom the passage-beds did not appear to him other than 
those of land-plants, and had been previously described by Dr. 
Hooker as spore-cases of Lycopodiacee.—2. On the Cliff- 
sections of the Tertiary Beds west of Dieppe in Normandy and 
at Newhaven in Sussex.” Ky Mr. William Whitaker, F.G.S. 
The author gave details of the sections of the Tertiary 
beds at the above places, and noticed the occurrence of London 
clay. Below this formation at Dieppe is a mass of sand, the same 
as that of the *‘Oldhaven beds” in East Kent, but here less 
markedly divided from the clay above; and beneath this sand 
come the estuarine shelly clays, &c., of the Woolwich beds. 
In the older accounts of the Newhaven section a much less thick- 
ness of the Tertiary beds is chronicled than may now be seen ; 
indeed the successive descriptions end upwards with higher and 
higher beds, owing to the destruction of the coast and the wearing 
back of the cliff into higher ground, the highest point seeming to 
have been at last reached. Here the Oldhaven sand is absent, 
but the Woolwich clays are in greater force ; and the ditch of 
the new fort shows some very irregular masses of gravel more or 

less wedged into those clays. Both sections show the compara- 
tively wide extent of like conditions to those of the Woolwich beds, 
of West Kent. The Chairman, in inviting discussion, called atten- 
tion to the existence of Tertiary beds of similar character near 
Epernay and Kheims, and in other parts of France. Mr. Evans 
remarked on the bearing which this extension of soft, yielding 
strata had on the excavation of the Channel. The disturbances 
in the sands and clays might be due to the springs having 
formerly, owing to the distance of the sea and the river-valley 
not having been excavated, stood at a higher level, and having 
thus softened or even washed away, the bed beneath the gravels. 
Mr. Pattison mentioned that in all the combes along the French 
coast towards Tréport there were traces of soft Tertiary beds, 
possibly Thanet sands. Mr. Whitaker, in a reply to a qu estion 
from the Chairman, stated that, to the best of his belief, the 
sandstones at Dieppe were not calciferous. The sands were 
above the Woolwich beds, and therefore not Thanet sands.— 
3. ‘*On New Tree Ferns and other Fossils from the Devonian.” 
By Prof. J. W. Dawson, L.L.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. The author 
referred to the numerous species of ferns known in the Upper 
and Middle Devonian of America, and to the fact that he had 
described several large petioles as probably belonging to ar- 
borescent species, and also two trunks covered with aériai roots, 
viz. Psaronius erianus and P. textilis. He also referred to Caulo- 
pleris Peachii of Salter as the only tree-fern known in the Devonian 
of Europe. He then described remains of four species of tree- 
ferns in collections communicated to him by Dr. Newberry of 
New York. The first of these, Caulopleris Lockwoodi, was found 
by the Rev. Mr. Lockwood at Gilboa, the locality of the 
Psaronites already mentioned, in rocks of the Chemung group. 
It isa fragment of a well-characterised stem, with parts of five 
petioles attached to it, and associated with remains of the leaves, 
It must have been entombed in an erect position, and is not im- 
probably the upper part of one of the species of Psanonius from 
the same locality. The second species, Caulopteris antigua, 
Newberry, is of much larger size, but less perfectly preserved. 
It is a flattened stem on a slab of marine limestone from the 
Corniferous formation in the lower part of the Middle Devonian 
(Erian) of Ohio. ~ The third species. Protopteris peregrina, New- 
berry, is from the same formation with the last, and constitutes 
the first instance of the occurrence of the genus to which it 
belongs, below the Carboniferous. The specimens show the 
form and arrangement of the leaf-scars, the microscopic structure 
of the petioles, and also the arrangement of the aérial roots 
covering the lower part of the stem. The fourth species is a 
gigantic Rhachiopteris, or leaf-stalk, evidently belonging to a 
species quite distinct from either of the above and showing its 
minute structure. It is no less than four inches wide at the base. 
In the cellular tissue of this petiole are rounded grains similar to 
those regarded by Corda and Carruthers, in Carboniferous and 
Eocene specimens, as starch-granules. In addition to these 
species, the paper described a new Megeeruthia (NV. gilboensis), 
and noticed a remarkable specimen from Caithness, in the 
collection of Prof. Wyville Thomson, throwing light on the 
problematical Lycopod:tes Vanuxemii of America ; also interest- 
Ing specimens of /silophyton and other genera seen by the 
writer in the collection of Mr. Peach of Edinburgh. Dr. Duncan 
doubted the desirability of basing generic and specific terms on 
imperfectly preserved and indistinct specimens, and pointed out 
the disagreements among botanists that had resulted from so 
doing. He would prefer calling fossils such as those described 
“*cryptogamous forms from certain strata.” He was doubtful 
also whether the supposed petrified starch was not merely or- 
bicular silex. The chairman remarked on the four different con- 
ditions exhibited by existing tree ferns, first, with roots running 
down the stem: secondly, the lower portion with oval scars ; 
these are, thirdly, farther up the stem, rhomboidal vertically ; 
and, fourthly, higher up still, rhomboidal horizontally ; so that 
were the plant fossil, distinct genera and species might be founded 
upon the different parts. 
MANCHESTER 
Literary and Philosophical Society, March 21.—Mr. E. 
W. Binney, president, in the chair. Dr. John Hopkinson 
was elected an ordinary member of the society. ‘On the 
Mechanical Equivalence of Heat,” by the Rev. H. Highton. 
The following is an abstract of the arguments as given in the 
paper and brought out in the subsequent discussion :—1. The 
author apologised for haying mentioned other names in con- 
nection with great discoveries which were undoubtedly due 
primarily to Dr. Joule, and spoke of the very great value of Dr. 
