94 OMtoary—Mr. E. A. Wiinsch, F.G.S. 



of that detailed comparative morphology of the teeth, in which the 

 homologies of the several cusps is considered, and from which the 

 American palaeontologists have been able to draw very important 

 conclusions as to the phylogeny of many groups of mammals. 



In a paper entiled " Ueber die Herkunft unserer Thierwelt eine 

 Zoogeographisch Skizze," 1867, Kiitimeyer gives a masterly account 

 of the distribution of the mammalia, showing the relations of the 

 fossil faunas to one another and to the recent forms. It is 

 a testimony to his sagacity that the great additions to our knowledge 

 of this subject have confirmed most of his conclusions, and have 

 rendered very few untenable. 



He was elected a Foreign Member of the Geological Society of 

 London in 1882. 



Up to the time of his death Prof. Kiitimeyer maintained a lively 

 interest in all scientific researches, and carried on his correspondence 

 to the last. He died at Basel on 26th November, 1895. 



E. A. WUNSCH, F.G.S. 

 Bob.n 1822. Died November 19th, 1895. 



This gentleman was one of the original members of the Glasgow 

 Geological Society, which was founded in 1858, and he has served 

 the office of Vice-President several times from 1858 to 1881, when 

 he left Glasgow to reside at Carharraek, Scorrier, Cornwall, where 

 he died November 19th, aged 73 years. 



The most important service which he rendered to geological 

 science was his discovery in 1865 of erect trees hurled in volcanic ash 

 at Arran. These trees were discovered in the Lower Carboniferous 

 strata of the north-eastern part of Arran in the sea-cliff, about five 

 miles north of Corrie, near the village of Laggan. Here strata of 

 volcanic ash occur, forming a solid rock cemented by carbonate 

 of lime and enveloping trunks of trees, determined by Mr. Binney 

 to belong to the genera Sigillaria and Lepidodendron. Sir Charles 

 Lyell mentions that he visited the spot in company with Mr. 

 Wiinsch in 1870, and saw that the trees with their roots, of which 

 about fourteen had been observed, occur at two distinct levels in 

 volcanic tuffs, parallel to each other, and inclined at an angle of 

 about 40°, having between them beds of shale and coaly matter 

 seven feet thick. It is evident that the trees were overwhelmed by 

 a shower of ashes from some neighbouring volcanic vent, as 

 Pompeii was buried by matter ejected from Vesuvius. The trunks, 

 several of them from three to five feet in circumference, remained 

 with their stigmarian roots spreading through the stratum below, 

 which had served as a soil. The trees must have continued for 

 years in an upright position after they were killed by the shower of 

 volcanic ash, giving time for a partial decay of the interior, so as to 

 afford hollow cylinders into which the spores of plants were wafted. 

 These spores germinated and grew, until finally their stems were 

 petrified b} r carbonate of lime, like some of the remaining portions 

 of the wood of the original Sigillaria tree-trunks. — "Ly ell's Students 

 Elements," 4th edition, 1885, pp. 496. 497. 



