Coemans — Fossil Flora of Hainault. . 319' 



trap -beds ; that these rocks have sometimes been so wasted away 

 that only huge detached pyramids of them are left, as in the case of 

 Ben More, Mull ; that the volcanic bank has been worn down into 

 detached islands often miles apart ; and that from the fact of so 

 many trap-dykes reaching the surface, even at a distance of more than 

 two hundred miles from the main mass of volcanic rock, the general 

 superficies of the country must have undergone a very extensive 

 amount of denudation since the Miocene period. These changes 

 point to the passing of an enormous lapse of time, and help to teach 

 us that, though in a geological sense, the Miocene age belonged to a 

 recent part of the earth's history, it is nevertheless separated from 

 our own period by an interval too vast to be realised by the mind. 



m. — Desckiption de la Flore Fossile du peemibr etage du 

 Tekkain Cretacee du Hainaut, par Eugene Coemans. Bruxelles, 

 1866. 



THIS short but interesting memoir on the fossil flora of the Creta- 

 ceous strata of Hainault is well deserving the attention of the 

 student of fossil botany. The remains found at La Lou^dere consist 

 of many cones, generally well preserved, fragments of wood, pieces 

 of resin, and masses of lignite and small roots, completely car- 

 bonized ; and their arrangement indicates a tranquil deposit. The 

 striking feature of this flora is that it appears composed almost 

 exclusively of Coniferce and Cycadece, and like other Cretaceous floras 

 does not possess any species common to other floras of the same 

 period, and differs entirely from that of Aix-la-Chapelle, only thirty 

 leagues distant ; not one of the twenty species of Conifera found 

 there being identical with any of the eight species described from 

 La Louviere, — the flora of Aix-la-Chapelle presenting, according to 

 M. Coemans, a younger aspect, in containing some species of Sequoia, 

 and not any Cycad, The recent addition of a Cycad to the British 

 Cretaceous flora is interesting. 



M. Coemans considers that the fossil flora of Hainault contains 

 types or intermediate forms which connect certain genera of Conifer (g ; 

 thus, his Pinus Gorneti is intermediate to Abies and Cedrus ; the P. 

 Andrai connects Strobus with Pinaster ; and the Pinus Heeri and 

 depressa form a transition from Cembra to Strobus. At page 17 

 M. Coemans retains Zamites macrocephalus and Z. ovatus, both which 

 Mr. Carruthers has shown to belong to Pinites (Geol. Mag., Vol. HI. 

 p. 536), and are not Cretaceous, but Lower Eocene fossils. — J. M. 



IV. — Notes on some Triassic Crustacea from Styria. By 



Professor A. E. Eeuss, For. Corr. Gr. S. 



[Proceed. Imp. Gaol. Instit., Vienna, January, 15th, 1867.] 



yjSPIDOCABIS TBIASSICA, Eeuss, from the inferior Triassic 

 ■^^ limestone west of Aussee, north-west of Styria, occurs as im- 

 pressions with fine concentric stri^, not unlike the leaves of 

 Sayitiaria, with a triangular notch produced by the separation of a 



