68 REPORT—1863. 
cinum) was founded on the fragment of the bark of an old trunk, having the leaf- 
bases flattened, and hence described as scales. It was evidently, in short, closely 
allied to the specimen described. The genus Ulodendron was, he thought, identical 
with Lepidophloios, but apparently founded on specimens having the leaf-bases 
preserved, with the cone scars, but wanting vascular scars; but he was in doubt as 
to the claims of the name Ulodendron on the ground of priority. It appeared to 
him that the generic names Ulodendron, Lomatophloios, Leptoxylum, Pachyphleus, 
and Bothrodendron should be abolished in favour of Leprdophioios, unless indeed it 
should appear that any of these names had priority in date. The second plant 
described was the Lepidodendron corrugatum, which was one of the most abundant 
in the Lower Coal-measures of Nova Scotia and New Brunswick. The species 
was remarkable for its variability, and also for the dissimilar appearances of old 
stems and branches occasioned by the separation of the areoles in the growth of the 
bark, instead of the areoles themselves increasing in size, as in some other Lepido- 
dendra. 
On the Relations of the Cumberland Coal-field to the Red Sandstone. 
By W. Marrutas Dunn, Government Inspector of Coal-mines, 
The author's practical investigations in the collieries of Ellenborough, Aspatria, 
and Crossby led him to consider that the main coal-field of the district yet remained 
untouched, as it had been downeast by faults beneath the Red Sandstone rock, 
which he is inclined to regard as the superior stratum of the Carboniferous system. 
Quoting several authorities in support of his opinion that the bottom of the 
basin would be found at and around Silloth Harbour, he pointed out the importance 
of determining the question, and described the trial simkings now going on near 
Wetherall and at the Aspatria Colliery. 
On a Salamander in the Rothliegendes. By Dr. Genxirz of Dresden. 
It was found some years ago in a slab of grey-marl slate, at Selberg, near Braunau 
belonging to the lower Rothliegende, not to the Kupferschiefer. Dr. Geinitz had 
proved the relation of this fossil with the living Stren lacertina, L., of North Carolina, 
so that he was persuaded he had in the fossil an old and gigantic Stren (a Sala- 
mander), whose dimensions exceeded those of the living species about ten times. 
There were preserved three and a half vertebrae, with a part of the skin; and the 
name proposed was Palgostren Beinerti, Gein. 
On the Alluvial Accumulation in the Valley of the Somme and Ouse. 
By R. A. C. Gopwix-Avsten, F.RS. 
The object of the paper was to show that these two river-valleys belonged to 
areas over which the geological changes had differed so greatly that, at present, 
comparisons could not be made; that the materials of the gravel-beds of the Ouse 
had, like those of all the rivers of the east of England, been derived from the 
“boulder-formation ;’’ and that the state of the animal-remains indicated that they 
belonged to the fauna of the period antecedent to the boulder-clay ; consequently 
that, should it be proved that flint implements were to be met with in the Bedford 
gravel-beds, it would not prove that the Elephas primigenius and its associates were 
contemporaneous with man. The valley of the Somme was shown to belong to an 
area which lay beyond the “ boulder-formation ”—that the series of alluvial beds 
differed greatly in respect of the physical conditions under which they had 
originated, yet that they indicated a definite order of succession, and implied a vast 
lapse of past time; in each of these flint implements have been said to have been 
found. The only evidence on this point which the author considers to be reliable 
is that with respect to the Champ de Mars, near Abbeville, where the beds belonged 
to the most recent portion of the alluvial series of the Somme, in the “ subaérial ” 
accumulations. The author further showed that there is no sufficient evidence of 
a post-glacial elephantine period, as also that the Somme valley could never have 
been the line of drainage of a vast river, but that the phenomena of river alluyia at 
great elevations are to be accounted for by physical changes of definite date, 
