84 Notes and Comments. 



differ profoundly in the two groups, and the fossils were funda- 

 mentally distinct, not only from the living Cycads, but from 

 all other living or fossil families. The fossils representing the 

 group that are most frequently found are (a) trunks, generally 

 more or less imperfect casts or partial petrifications, and 

 sometimes excellent petrifications preserving anatomical details 

 and cell-tissues ; (b) impressions of the foliage. Not infrequent 

 are the detached impressions of incomplete ' flowers ' or cones, 

 of one cohort (the Williamsonese), while petrified fructifications 

 are numerous in some of the well-petrified trunks of the Ben- 

 nettiteas. 



METHODS OF OCCURRENCE. 



The described species of the group run into hundreds, but 

 probably many of these duplicate real species, because the 

 foliage, trunks, pith-casts, various portions of the fructifications, 

 etc., have often been separately found and named. In very 

 few cases have the different parts been correlated. The species 

 of the foliage are the most generally known, as they are the 

 most readily recognized with the naked eye ; they have been 

 described under a variety- of generic names. The following 

 tabie gives the proved, or probable, associated parts of some 

 members of the group : — 



Foliage. Trunk. Fructifications. 



Zamites spp. Bennettites spp. Bennettites spp. 



Zamites gigas. Attached, no separate Williamsonia gigas. 



name. 



Otozamites sp. Williamsonia spectabilis. 



Ptilophyllum pectinoides. Williamsonia whitbiensis. 



Anomozamites minor. (Only slender branches Wielandiella angustifolia. 



known, no name). 

 Tceuiopteris vittata. Williamsoviella coronata. 



NATURAL HISTORY 150 YEARS AGO. 



We recently obtained a work entitled ' The Natural History 

 of England ; or A Description of each particular County In 

 Regard to the curious Productions of Nature and Art,' in two 

 volumes. Vol. I., 410 pp., 1759 ; Vol. II., 392 pp., 1763. 

 ' Yorkshire' occupies pages 273-304 of the second volume. 

 Of ' natural history ' as we know it, however, there seems to 

 be but little. For instance, ' the Soil, Air and Product, greatly 

 vary in different Parts of the County : in some Places, the Ground 

 is of a stony, sandy and barren Nature ; in others it is pungent 

 and fruitful ... In the extreme Parts, you meet with scarce 

 any Thing but craggy mountainous Rocks and Moors, which 

 produce little else than Heath. Here the air is sharp and 

 bleak, and the Hills are frequently covered with Snow till 

 May. The more wild and uncultivated Parts are not without 

 several useful Products, as large quantities of Iron Ore, Allum, 

 Jet, Lime, Liquorice, Coals, and good Stone : One Sort partic- 

 ularly that slits into Slabs three of four Feet Square. Here 



Naturalist, 



