Notices of Memoirs — W. A. E TTssher — Granites. 467 



The grant last year was £10, but at least three times this sum has 

 been spent. 



Before the end of this year, with the assistance of subscribers, 

 I shall publish a Seismological Journal which will be uniform in 

 character with the Transactions of the Seismological Society. 



III. — Fossil Arotio Plants found near Edinburgh. By Clement 



Eeid, F.L.S., F.G.S. 

 T)ECENT discoveries by Mr. Bennie. of the Geological Survey, 

 JlL have brought to light a series of silted-up tarns or small lochs 

 in the neighbourhood of Edinburgh. These tarns seem to have lain, 

 in irregular hollows left on the retreat of the ice, for the lowest 

 deposits usually yield remains of arctic plants. The principal 

 localities for these plants are Corstorphine and Hailes. Trees, 

 except perhaps the alder, are entirely missing in the lower deposits, 

 and the vegetation consists mainly of dwarf willow and birch, with 

 a few herbaceous plants, of species still living within the Arctic 

 Circle. The list now includes the following plants, those marked 

 with an asterisk being arctic species no longer living in the lowlands 

 of Scotland : — 



Manunculus aquatilis, Linn. 

 ,, repens, Linn. 



Viola (?). 



Stellaria media, Cyr. 



Rubus sp. 

 *Dri/as octopefala, Linn. 



Poteiiiilla sp. 



Poterium sp. 



Sippuris vulgaris, Linn. 



Myriophyllum spicatum, Linn. 



Taraxacum officinale, Web. 



Andromeda Polifolia, Linn. 

 *Loiseleuria procumbens, Desv. 



Menyanthes trifoliata, Linn. 



*Oxyria digyna. Hill. 

 *Betula nana, Linn. 



Alnus (?). 



Salix repens, Linn. 



* „ herhacea, Linn. 



* ,, polaris, Wahlb. 



* ,, reticulata, Linn. 

 Empetrum nigrum, Linn. 

 Potamogeton sp. 

 Eleocharis palustris, R. Br. 

 Scirpus pauciflorus, Lightf . 



„ lacustris, Linn. 

 Car ex, 2 sp. 



IV. — Devon and Cornish Granites. By W. A. E. Ussher, F.G.S. 



PEOM the relations of the stratified rocks to the granites of Devon 

 and Cornwall there is no obtainable evidence as to the 

 upheaval of the latter. 



From evidences of great mechanical disturbance (such as deflec- 

 tions of strike and constrictions of outcrop), of metamorphism in 

 areas bordering the granites, from the shapes, relative positions, 

 and internal structure of the granite masses ; from the distribution of 

 the Elvans, and from evidences of the production of cleavage in the 

 area prior to the contact metamorphism of the cleaved rocks, it 

 appears that the sites of the Devon and Cornish granite masses 

 were occupied by the granites or pre-existent and subterraneously 

 connected rocks of pre-Devonian age, which had, in a rigid state, 

 exercised an obstructive influence on the north and south movements, 

 and had thereby produced gi-eat mechanical eff'ects on the surrounding 

 strata prior to the alteration of the latter. 



The contact alteration, of the stratified rocks seems to be coeval 



