166 Abstracts of Foreign Memoirs. 
The author of the present paper has from time to time published 
descriptions of new species from the Brown-coal of Latdorf in the 
‘Zeitsch. gesammt. Naturw.,’ and in this memoir he reproduces 
these descriptions, adding others of new species, with notes on some 
old ones, giving figures of the forms now described for the first 
time, and of those which, though described by him before in the 
‘ Zeitschrift,’ had not yet been figured. He also gives lists of all the 
species of Shells, Bryozoa, and Corals that have been described 
from this locality, or have been noticed as occurring there. 
Among the new species we notice one under the name of Thecidea 
oblonga, and, although the figure is so bad that it shews nothing be- 
sides the general form of the shell, that alone is sufficient to suggest 
the probability of its being the same species as that referred to by 
Mr. Davidson* as Thecidium Mediterraneum, var. #Latdorfiense. 
Dr. Giebel considers it, however, a new species, but his description 
contains scarcely any allusion to the internal arrangements, he him- 
self considering that ‘the form and the condition of the surface are 
quite sufficient to distinguish this species from all others.’ The sur- 
face is described as wrinkled and punctate (wurmfrassig), and exhi- 
biting the lines of growth only towards the margin; the shell is 
said to be oblong in shape, strongly vaulted, and becoming only a 
little narrower towards the beak, which is very thick; the hinge- 
line is straight. Dr. Giebel also states that it is the only species 
found in the Tertiary beds of Germany.—H. M. J. 
Sopra 1 Deposit: pi Prante Fossrit DELL’ AMERICA SETTENTRIONALE, DELLE 
Inpin,E DELL’ AUSTRALIA CHE ALCUNI AUTORI RIFERIRONO ALL’ Epoca Oort- 
Tica; Memoria del Cav. A. pn Zicno. (From the Proceed. Acad. Sciences of 
Padua. 8yvo. 1863.) 
N every group of natural objects, or natural phenomena, which 
has been the subject of classification, there must be certain 
members having such mixed characters that it is difficult to say to 
which of the two or more neighbouring groups they more properly 
belong. Geology furnishes many such instances, some of more than 
usual difficulty, and especially the case of the age of certain plant- 
bearing strata, occurring in several distant regions, and having all a 
greater or less community of character, as exhibited in the facies of 
the fossils they contain. 
The Baron de Zigno, who has before written on the subject, has 
recently published in the paper before us a résumé of the facts and 
opinions current respecting the age of these several plant-bearing 
strata, which have been referred by some to the Oolitic Period. 
From the title it will be seen that the deposits in question occur in 
North America, India, and Australia; but strata containing similar 
fossils to those occurring in India and Australia occur also in South 
Africa, though Sign. de Zigno does not mention them. 
The chief conclusions of Sign. de Zigno, and the facts adduced 
in support of them, may be thus stated. The flora of Rajmahal 
* GnoLocican Macazmnn, No. 1, p. 18, Pl. L., figs. 6-9. 
