CXlil 
existing vegetation of the world can in its development be traced to an 
universal flora in bygone geologic ages, and, therefore, in perfect accord 
with the evolution hypothesis. It is strange to observe that the pre- 
vailing forms of vegetation in Tasmania during the Tertiary period 
should be more closely allied to the existing flora of Europe than to the 
existing flora of Tasmania. 
Mr. Johnston states that the species of Eucalyptus from Mount Bischoff 
named by him E. Kayseri, is the first indication of our most character- 
istic vegetation (the gum tree) which he has yet observed in a fossil 
state in Tasmania. Quercus, so abundantly represented in a fossil state 
at Mount Bischoff, is now restricted entirely to the Northern Hemis- 
here. 
A Paper, entitled ‘‘ The Tasmanian Earth tremors 1883-4-5,” by Mr. 
A. B. Biggs, which was replied to by Captain Shortt, and Messrs. R. M. 
Johnston and W. H. Knight. 
The following note on the determination of the coal plants of 
Tasmania, by Mr. T. Stephens, was read :—Some five years ago I 
submitted to the notice of the Royal Society specimens of Glossopteris, 
Gangamopteris, Noeggerathiopsis, with other forms not yet fully iden- 
tified, from the Mersey coal measures, and shortly afterwards a fine col- 
lection from the same b+ds was presented by Mr. Hainsworth, of Latrobe. 
At the time of the Calcutta Exhibition I sent a vox of specimens from 
the same locality, together with a few from the Jerusalem basin, to 
Dr. Ottokar Feistmantel, Palceontologist of the Geological Survey of 
India, whois thoroughly conversant with the flora of all the Australian 
coalfields, and better able than any other living authority to settle 
questions concerning the relative age and affinities of the coal measures 
of Tasmania. In the correspondence which has followed, Dr. Feistmantel 
expressedhis readiness to determine for us the species of our coal plants, 
and thus facilitate comparisons and conclusions which at present are 
necessarily made very much in the dark. In a letter received by the 
last mail he says: —‘‘I don’t want to publish anything about the 
subject before I have got again your opinion about the position of the 
Mersey beds in reference to the marine fossils, I intend, then, to publish 
figures and descriptions of the fossils you have sent: for this purpose 
I would be much obliged to you for any other fossils from the coal 
measures of Tasmania which you might be able to communicate to 
me, so that my memoir on the plant fossils of Tasmania might be more 
complete. When I wrote my first notices on the Australian fossil flora 
I had no sufficient information about the occurrence of Glossopteris in 
Tasmania.” It is a long time since I have had any leisure to dovote to 
the collection of geological specimens, and those which I possess from 
the southern and eastern coal measures are mostly in a fragmentary 
condition, having been obtained hurriedly from roadside cuttings, or 
the debris of coal workings, while traversing the country on horseback, 
Iam, however, able to supply Dr. Feistmantel with a good collection 
from the Mersey basin, and shall be glad to do any thing in my power 
to send him one fepresenting the other coal formations in Tasmania. 
If any of the Fellows of the Royal Society are willing to help in this 
direction, and will either send specimens to the Museum, or furnish the 
names of local collectors from whom they can be procured, they will 
materially aid in the accomplishment of an important work, which 
cannot be performed except by the transmission of a good representative 
collection to acompetent authority. 
EXHIBITS, 
Mr. James Andrew produced a specimen of rock from the Kimberley 
district in South Africa in which the diamonds are found. 
_ Mr. F. Belstead, of Launceston, sent a specimen of fossil wood obtained 
in the Ringarooma district. 
