Reviews — R. Kidston's Catalogue, Fossil Plants. 177 



from what we do know, however, concerning these earlier species, 

 they are seen to be of the greatest interest, as offering forms inter- 

 mediate in dentition, by which the ruminants and non-ruminants can 

 in a measure be connected together, and also the Perissodactyla and 

 Artiodactyla. 



The SuiclcB are a very remarkable group, being connected by the 

 Chevrotains with the Deer-tribe (and possibly also with the Perisso- 

 dactyla and Proboscidea, if not with the Sirenia also in past times). 



The principal sources whence these early types of Mammalia have 

 been obtained are from the Eocene freshwater beds of Hempstead 

 in the Isle of Wight, the Headon beds, Hordwell, Hampshire ; 

 Vaucluse, Debruge, Montmartre, Caylux and many other localities 

 in France ; Hesse-Darmstadt in Germany, Pikermi in Greece, and 

 the Siwalik Hills, India. 



Some of the most ancient progenitors of the pig-tribe (Elotherium) 

 also date back to the Eocene of Hempstead and the Lower Miocene 

 of France. The Hyotherium is also regarded as an ancestral form 

 of Sus or Dicotyles. 



Sus giganteus and Sus titan, both from the Indian Siwaliks, were 

 amongst the very largest ancestral forms of the Pig family. 



The Hippopotamidce, of which a short notice was given in the 

 March Number of the Geological Magazine (p. 114), appear at a 

 less early date than the pigs, but are of extreme interest. They are 

 confined to the old world, over which they seem to have been very 

 widely distributed in Pliocene and Quaternary times, but they are 

 restricted now to the rivers and coasts of the African continent. 



It is hardly possible to over-estimate the advantage derived by the 

 publication of these Catalogues. They are an embodiment of all the 

 (too-frequently) unwritten traditions concerning specimens in our 

 grand National Collection, and Mr. William Davies has largely con- 

 tributed, by his unostentatious, but earnest labours, to bring the 

 remains of the fossil Mammalia in the Geological Collection into 

 such a state as to enable them to be catalogued by Mr. Lydekker, 

 a task too, in which, as stated in the preface, he has taken no small 

 share. It is gratifying to be able to state that this portion of the 

 geological galleries is in a highly satisfactory state, and reflects the 

 greatest credit on the staff who have arranged it in so admirable 

 a manner. 



IV. — Catalogue op the Palaeozoic Plants in the Department 

 of Geology and Palaeontology, British Museum (Natural 

 History). By Robert Kidston, F.G.S. 8vo. pp. viii. and 288. 

 (London, 1886, printed by Order of the Trustees.) 



ME. ROBERT KIDSTON has been favourably known for some 

 time past as a diligent worker in fossil Botany, and he has 

 confined his attention mainly to the plant-remains of the Coal- 

 formation. 



Having named and catalogued the Coal-plants in the Museum of 

 Science and Art, Edinburgh, and also contributed several papers to 



DECADE III. VOL. III. .NO. IV. 12 



