474 Revieivs — Prof. Gosselet on Spiri/er Verneuili. 



and equally so with that of the Calciferous Sandstone in Scotland, 

 so that it may justly be considered a Culm flora. It has no special 

 relation with the Old Eed Sandstone flora, and therefore Heer's 

 name of the " Ursa-Stufe " is not applicable to it. One of the 

 remarkable features of this flora is the large size of the Ferns, 

 Lepidodendra and Stigmaria, which show that the climate of the 

 Lower Carboniferous epoch in Lat. 78^° N. must have been equally 

 as favourable to plant life as that of the European continent at the 

 same period. 



Coming now to the Palseozoic flora of Bear Island, Dr. Nathorst 

 modifies very materially Heer's determinations of the plants collected 

 by Nordenskiold and Malmgren. Thus, for instance, he doubts the 

 occurrence of genuine Calamites, many of the specimens referred to 

 this genus really belonging to Knorria, and one is provisionally 

 placed as a new genus and species, Pseudohornia ursina. Several 

 species of Bothrodendron are also present ; one of these is identical 

 with B. (Cydostigma) Kiltorlcense, Haughton, from the Old Red of 

 Ireland. Many specimens placed under Knorria prove to be frag- 

 ments of Bothrodendron. There is, further, no ground for supposing 

 that Lepidodendro7i Veltheimianum occurs on Bear Island. The flora 

 of this island is very distinct from that of the Lower Carboniferous 

 of Spitzbei'gen, for with the exception of Stigmaria Jicoides all the 

 species are different ; and it is equally as distinct from the Devonian 

 flora of Spitzbergen. The author considers that it is intermediate 

 between the Devonian and the Lower Carboniferous, and that the 

 name Ursa flora may be retained for it. 



Very little remains to be said respecting the fragmentary plants 

 discovered by Nordenskiold on Novaya Zemlya. The shales con- 

 taining them are above the Permo-Carboniferous deposits, but the 

 horizon they represent has not been determined. The plants were 

 rightly referred by Heer to Cordaites, but on revision only two of 

 the species described by him can be maintained. G. J. H. 



V. — Etude sue les Vakiations dtj Spirifer Verneuili. Par 

 J. Gosselet. Memoires de la Societe Geologique du Nord. 

 Tome IV. Mem. I. pp. 61, Pis. I- VII. (Lille, 1894.) 



A Study of the Variations of Spirifer Vehneuili. By Prof. 

 Jules Gosselet. 



THE well-known and very widely-distributed Upper Devonian 

 Brachiopod, Spirifer Verneuili, Murch. (^S. disjuncta, Sow.), 

 is one of the commonest fossils of the Frasnien series in the North 

 of France and Belgium. It is said to occur in the Eifelien and 

 the Stringocephaius beds of the Middle Devonian, but the author 

 considers that it makes its first appearance in the upper portion of 

 the Givetien limestones. It reaches its greatest development in the 

 Frasnien series and in the next higher Famennien series it is also 

 very abundant. Here it comes into competition with Cyrtia MurcJii- 

 soniana, and apparently gains the mastery ; but in the higher beds 

 of the series it becomes less common, and finally it disappears 



