Geological Society of London. 423 



coryne are given off chiefly from the poriferous face, and the other 

 processes from the poriferous and non-poriferous faces, and from the 

 edge and base of the frond. The authors did not express any positive 

 opinion as to the function of these processes, but they suggested that 

 those given off from the non-poriferous face and from the base of 

 calycine fronds, may serve as adventitious roots, and those given off 

 from the margins and from the poriferous face near the margins, 

 may be irregularities of growth, unless they are the commencement 

 of new fronds. 



Discussion. —Prof. Duncan remarked that it was to be regretted that those critics 

 who differed from original investigators in matters of fact did not correspond with 

 them before offering their views to the Society Had this course been taken in this 

 instance, he would have been spared the necessity of explaining Prof, and Mr. Young's 

 errors of observation, and of showing that they had not as yet comprehended either 

 the anatomy or the classificatory position of Palceocoryne. He objected to Paleozoic 

 Polyzoa being saddled with such "appendages " as Palceocoryne, because no modern 

 form had anything like them, for they could not be compared with the avicularia or 

 with vibracula. Moreover the base of PalcRocoryne sat upon, covered, and destroyed 

 numerous cells of the Polyzoon. It could not therefore be a sterile or any form of 

 appendage, but must be looked upon as parasitic in the sense already explained by 

 him and his colleague Mr. Jenkins. Of course theie being no screws or pegs in 

 Palaeozoic times, the TalcBocoryne could only attach itself by a fusion of its hard parts 

 with those of the Polyzoon. Such organic connexion is common enough between 

 modern parasites and their hosts. He had carefully studied the morphology of 

 Talmocoryne with Mr. Jenkins, and the drawings had been admirably executed by the 

 artist, and in the course of their investigations such opinions as those expressed by 

 Prof. Young had occurred to them. He was satisfied that the ornamentation of 

 Palceocoryne was mimetic of that of the Polyzoon, and that the stems, capitulum, and 

 arms were originally hollow. He exhibited drawings and specimens showing the 

 fistulose condition of the arms (from the collection of the Geological Survey of 

 Scotland). When the structures were perfectly fossilized, they were of course solid, 

 but the original central tube could be distinguished in most instances by the nature of 

 the minei'alization. Prof. Young had mistaken pieces i)f Feneslella for Palceocoryne, 

 and had not distinguished the stolons of the Polyzoon from the arms of the hydroid. 



Mr. Jenkins said that among recent Polyzoa there is only one genus that has an 

 appendage at all similar to Palaocoryue. This appendage, however, is very small in 

 comparison with the individual Polyzoon, whilst the base of FalxEocoryne covers 

 50 cells of the Feneslella. He thought it very unlikely that so large a surface should 

 be sterile or useless. 



3. "The Steppes of Siberia." By Thomas Belt, Esq., F.G.S. 



The author described the portion of the Siberian steppes traversed 

 by him as consisting of sand and loam. The best section seen by 

 him was at Pavlodar, where he found 1 foot of surface soil, 20 feet 

 of stratified reddish-brown sand, with lines of small gravel, 8 feet of 

 light-coloured sandy silt, 15 feet of coarse sand, with lines of small 

 pebbles, and 1 line of large ones, and 6 feet of clayey unlaminated 

 silt, with fragments of the bed rock in its lower half, the bed rock 

 being Magnesian Limestone much crushed at the top. South of 

 Pavlodar the surface was covered with pebbles, which became larger 

 in advancing southward, until the soil was full of large angular 

 quartz boulders. Further south the bed-rock comes to the surface 

 in ridges and low hills, increasing in height until some of them 

 attain 2000 feet. All the rock-surfaces were much shattered, as if 

 by the action of frost, but they showed no signs of glacier-action. 

 The ridges and hills were separated by plains composed of sandy 

 clay, with numerous angular fragments derived from the rocks iu the 



