128 
the fruits and stems and leaves found in the London clay and 
the leaf-beds of the Isle of Wight shew us Palms and Screw- 
pines, Cassia, Myrtle, Leguminous plants in great variety, 
and very few Composite: yet the Mediterranean flora and that 
of the Miocene may be well compared: and the oaks and 
willows, tulip trees, Rhamni, and plane trees of America, 
mingled with Palms and Cinnamons from the tropics, and Pro- 
teacese from the Cape, are all to be found in Miocene strata; 
and they abound in the lower Miocene which is so perfectly 
developed in Switzerland, and which has received the atten- 
tion of a dozen good European botanists (Heer, Raulin, &c. &c.). 
There has thus been apparently a true “succession of Plant- 
life” on the globe. And should any one object that the data 
are too few to furnish a basis for argument, let it be answered, 
that the data as far as known, agree with those drawn from 
the much more perfect series of buried animals, And.-further, 
that the progress of all true discovery has been this: that the 
known data should be accepted and reasoned on, until better 
turn up. And that an hypothesis may be greatly useful, even 
if founded on scanty data, provided we include nothing that is 
uncertain—and use it, as Sir H. de la Beche used to say—only 
as a peg to hang facts upon. 
(2) A sketch diagram of the Passage of the Brachio- 
poda to the Bivalves and the Bwalve to the Univalve. 
By Mr Satter, F.G.S. 
(3) Note on Crotalocrinus rugosus,a remarkable Crinoid 
m the Woodwardian Museum. By Mr Sauter, 
(2) and (3) are printed in the Society’s Transactions. 
Professor BABINGTON in expressing his approbation of the 
map drawn up by Mr Salter, spoke of the great difficulty of 
assigning fossil plants to their order and genera, which difficulty 
was perhaps less in the coal measures. 
