THE HAMILTON ASSOCIATION. 123 
of the organisms, I may be permitted to relate an anecdote I 
heard related in my younger days. There was a vacancy for a 
coronership in the Barony of Duhallow, County Cork, and an 
ambitious auctioneer, finding business slack, came to the conclusion 
that he might as well prefer a claim to the coveted office as 
another, so he called on a county magnate in order to secure his 
influence in the matter, Having stated the cause of his visit, Sir W. 
B. was rather taken aback at our friend’s cool request, but replied, 
in the courtly way of the old country squire: ‘‘ I regret, sir, I am un- 
able to promise you my support. {I hold that the office of coroner for 
the county is of very great importance, and I consider it ought to be 
filled by someone learned in the law or medical profession—a law- 
yer or doctor, in fact.” ‘A liar or docthur! Sir William,” was the 
unexpected reply, ‘‘ Arrah! sure ’d know a dead man as soon as 
either of um.” Well, gentlemen, you may permit me to say I possi- 
bly can recognize an Alga or Fucoid quite as readily as any profes- 
sional, when the latter had not an opportunity of seeing the plant 
in situ, but merely in the closet or study. 
In the appendix to that useful and interesting work, ‘“ Geikie’s 
Class Book Geology ” (1886), at page 479, under the head “ Vegeta- 
ble Kingdom,” I find a statement as follows: ‘‘ Impressions of some 
of the larger kind of sea-weeds may be left in soft mud or sand; 
traces of fungi have been noticed even in rocks of the carboniferous 
period.” The concluding part is calculated to lead one to infer that 
the indications of sea plants presented themselves for the frst time 
in the age of the coal measures. Sir Archibald appears to have 
forgotten that at page 319 he gives us an illustration of a fine, well- 
preserved Alga (Chondrites Versimilis) from the Upper Silurians. 
Its position as a plant was, I think, correctly assigned, although it 
bears a certain resemblance to a Niagara Graptolite of the genus 
Acanthograptus (Spencer). 
“From this incompleteness of the record and from the wide 
differences in the organic grade of the forms actually preserved in 
the rocks, we may reasonably infer that only a most meagre represen- 
tation of the life of the time has come down to us in a fossil state.” 
— Sir. A. Getkte. 
Feb. 24th, 1893. 
