372 Reports and Proceedings — PalceontograpMeal Society. 



a Memoir begun twenty years previously. The first on the list, that 

 on the Morphology and Histology of Stigmaria ficoides, by Prof. 

 W. C. WilliamsoD, LL.D., F.E.S., is a complete summary of the 

 latest information on the roots and rootlets of the great Carboniferous 

 Sigillaroid trees, and devotes fifteen plates to their a'spect, as seen by 

 the aid of the microscope as well as by the unassisted vision. All 

 the plates are examples of high artistic skill, and of excellent 

 lithographic printing. 



The second monograph on the list, viz. that on the Fossil Sponges, 

 by Dr. George J. Hinde, F.G.S., deals with a general introduction, 

 and gives much information with regard to the structure and forms 

 of Paleeozoic Sponge-spicules. The eight plates accompanying 

 Part I. of this Memoir are fine specimens of careful drawing. In 

 the third work, treating of the Jurassic Gasteropoda, by Wilfrid H. 

 Hudleston, M.A., F.E.S., F.G.S., the variations in the strata of the 

 Inferior Oolite at numerous localities in Dorsetshire and Somersetshire 

 are dwelt upon (the beds themselves being carefully defined), so 

 that when the description of species commences, as will be the 

 case in the next volume, the different horizons can be rigorously 

 indicated. In the fourth Monograph, by S. S. Buckman, F.G.S,, 

 the Ammonites of the Inferior Oolite are taken in hand, and five 

 species, illustrated by six admirable plates, are described witb 

 much care, an earnest of the nature of the parts that will follow. 

 In the fifth and last work the continuation of the Mammalia of the 

 Pleistocene period, by Professor W. Boyd Dawkins, M.A., F.E.S. , 

 F.S.A., F.G.S., the horns of some of the Deer belonging to that era 

 are delineated by seven fine plates. 



The cost of this grand volume has exceeded five hundred pounds, 

 and has been more in amount than the sum contributed by the 

 subscribers for the year to which the book relates. 



The volume for the year 1887 is with the printer, and will contain 

 the continuation of the Monographs on the Paleeozoic Sponges, the 

 Jurassic Gasteropoda, and the Inferior Oolite Ammonites ; it will 

 introduce, in addition, a new Monograjph on the Paleozoic Phyllo- 

 poda, by Prof. T. Eupert Jones, F.E.S., and Dr. H. Woodward, F.E.S. 



Dr. H. Woodward has promised, at an early date, a Monograph 

 on the Insects of the Coal-period, for which he has been for some 

 time collecting materials. 



Active then as is the Society for the promotion of Pal^ontological 

 Science, it is a matter of regret, that Geologists in general do not 

 more readily enroll themselves as members. A hundred additional 

 subscribers would materially advance the issue of the Monographs, 

 seeing that several of the latter cannot at the present moment be 

 proceeded with for want of funds. The aim of the Society is essen- 

 tially national, and is deserving of national support. For forty 

 years the Society has laboured and has outlived all but a very few of 

 its founders and early friends ; nevertheless the present year finds it 

 still at work, striving to spread abroad a knowledge of the vast 

 stores of fossil treasures existing in the strata of Great Britain. 

 Since the days that its original promoters met together, many Free- 



