90 Royal Geological Society of Ireland. 



must be regarded as very nearly allied. He thought that the doctrine of evolution 

 was being pushed further than the known facts would warrant. 



Mr. Woodward, in replying, drew attention to the series of diagrams of the embryo 

 and larva of the recent Limulus, comparing them with Limulus of the Coal-measures, 

 Neolimulus of the Silurian, and also with the larval stages of the Trilobites, dis- 

 covered by Barrande. He pointed out the strong resemblance which the fossil forms 

 offer to the early stages of the modern King-crab, and expressed his assent to the 

 proposal of Dr. Dohrn to bring the Trilobita, if possible, nearer to the Merostomata. 

 If, however, the Trilobites have true walking-legs instead of mouth-feet (gnathopo- 

 dites) only, they would be more closely related to the Isopoda. He showed by a 

 tabular view of the Arthropoda that the known range in time of the great classes is 

 nearly the same, and therefore affords no argument for combining the M erostomata 

 with the Arachnida ; but, on the contrary, he considered that the Trilobita were, 

 with the Entomostraca, the earliest representatives of the class Crustacea, and could 

 not therefore be removed from that class. 



EoTAL Geological Society of Ireland. — Wednesday, December 

 13th. William Ogilby, Esq., F.G.S., in the Chair.— William Hellier 

 Baily, F.L.S., F.G.S. etc., read a paper, " Additional Notes on the 

 Fossil Flora of Ireland." He first described a new fossil plant, 

 collected by the Geological Survey of Ireland from the Carboniferous 

 Limestone, at Whitestone Quarry, near Wexford, under the name of 

 Filicites plumiformis. This fossil he alluded to as being of a very 

 unusual character compared v*^ith those hitherto observed in the Coal- 

 shales, or Carboniferous strata generally, bearing a considerable re- 

 semblance to some of the Cycadeee, especially Palseozamia, a genus at 

 present confined to Oolitic strata. The author observed that it ap- 

 proached most nearly in form to Filicites vittarioides (Brongn. Veg. 

 Foss., pi. 137, fig. 1), from the Coal-formation of Eichmond, Vir- 

 ginia. — The author then brought before the meeting the results of 

 his examination of the collections made from the interesting fossil 

 locality in the Upper Old Eed Sandstone of Kiltorcan, county of 

 Kilkenny, these fossils having excited considerable attention from 

 Continental and American palaeontologists. The large Fern origi- 

 nally named by the late Professor Edward Forbes Cyelopteris Hiber- 

 nicus, he alluded to as being now referred by Dr. Schimper to his 

 genus PalcBopteris, who described it as differing from Ctjdopteris in 

 the arrangement of its leaflets, and from Adiantites (in which genus 

 it was afterwards placed by Brongniart) in its mode of fructification. 

 Two additional species of Fossil Ferns had been since described by 

 the author from this locality, Sphenopteris Hooheri and S. HumpTires- 

 ianum. Another plant frequent at this place, having a fluted or 

 ribbed stem, had been referred by him to Sagenaria Veltheimiana. 

 Professor Schimper, however, to whom he had sent a series of speci- 

 mens, considered it to be a distinct species, naming it Knorria 

 Bailyana, he having had opportunities of comparing its fruit with 

 that of S. Veltheimiana, from which it differed considerably. The 

 author believed the plant named Lepidodendron, and afterwards 

 Cyclostigma minuta by Dr. Haughton, to be the upper branches of 

 Knorria. Drawings of this species were exhibited by him of 

 the natural size, showing a root allied to Stigmaria, succeeded by a 

 longitudinally ribbed stem like Sigillaria, the upper portion branch- 

 ing. Associated with it, cone-like bodies occur, composed of elon- 



