Reports & Proceedings — Edinhurgh Geological Society. 43 



Desert of the Soutli-West African Protectorate has a rainfall of less 

 than an inch per annum, and the strong southerly winds cause 

 terrible sandstorms. Every exposed rock is cut and grooved by the 

 sand-blast, and loose pebbles are faceted by the same agency and 

 assume the forms known as einhanter and dreikanter. Wandering 

 crescentic sand-dunes or barchans travel ceaselessly northward, 

 covering up everything that gets in their way. In this inhospitable 

 region diamonds are recovered from the sand by a number of German 

 mining companies. 



2. JVbvetnber 21, 1917 (issued December 14, 1917). — Professor Jehu, 

 President, in the Chair. 



(1) " Descriptions of some new Volcanic Necks near Pittenweem." 

 ByD. Balsillie, B.Sc, F.G.S. 



Immediately to the Avest of Pittenweem Harbour four small 

 volcanic necks have been laid bare by the sea. The rocks among 

 which these occur consist mainly of sandstones, shales, fireclays, and 

 ironstones, along with a thin band of impure limestone yielding 

 Entomostraca and Spirorhis that was estimated by Mr. Kirkby to 

 be about 1,000 feet above the Encrinite-bed. The strata here dip 

 a little to the north of west at high angles, and appear to have 

 assumed such a disposition prior to their disruption by active volcanic 

 forces. 



The material filling the necks is in the main a non-volcanic sedi- 

 mentary debris, but includes frequent pieces of a highly vesicular 

 white trap. Neither is there discernible assortment of the con- 

 stituents in any of these fragmentary accumulations, nor are 

 alteration effects conspicuous. It appears pi'obable, therefore, that 

 we have here a record of only a transient manifestation of volcanic 

 action. 



(2) "The Glossopteris Flora." By D. Balsillie, B.Sc, F.G.S. 

 The apparently cosmopolitan floras of Upper Devonian and Lower 



Carboniferous times constitute, as emphasized by Seward, one great 

 phase in the evolution of the plant kingdom. These floras included 

 representatives of all the major classes of our present Pteridophyta, 

 along with other types now entirely extinct or represented only by 

 greatly diminished forms occasionally of the most restricted 

 distribution. 



Passing to Upper Carboniferous and Permian times, there is strong 

 evidence to show that the earth's surface was then divisible into two 

 great botanical provinces of ecological significance. In the northern 

 hemisphere the vegetation might be regarded as merely a continuation 

 of the older flora, but enormously amplified and extended. In tlie 

 southern hemisphere, however, a totally new assemblage of types 

 appeared, filicinean (pteridospermic?) mainly in the character of 

 its foliage, and including as two chai-acteristic genera Glossopteris 

 and Gangamopteris. It is this great series of southern forms that has 

 been designated the Glossopteris Flora. 



Typical members of this southern flora have been recorded from 



