ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. Ixix 



phibian related to new-world types, and of a probable land shell, of 

 the family Helicidce, in the interior of a fossil tree in the coal-mea- 

 sures of Nova Scotia, has excited general and deserved interest, and 

 holds out a promise of future additions from unexpected sources to 

 our roll of palaeozoic animals. It is an event of no light significance. 

 The number of palseozoic reptiles is steadily, though gradually, in- 

 creasing at home and abroad. A new and highly curious form of 

 Labyrinthodont from the Carluke Coal-shales, the Farabatrachus 

 Colei of Owen, has appeared on this side of the Atlantic to support 

 o,ur hope of obtaining sooner or later a far larger list of palseozoic 

 air-breathing animals than we at present possess. 



Those who are interested in Permian palaeontology will find a 

 valuable contribution to this subject in the " Sitzungs-Berichte der 

 Kaiserlichen Akademie der Wissenschaften " for June 1853. It is a 

 memoir on the fauna of the German Zechstein formation by Baron 

 Karl von Schauroth. A comparison is instituted between the Ger- 

 man and English species (the latter as described by Professor King), 

 and a concordance is given. From the lists in this paper it appears 

 that there are 6 1 Permian species common to Germany and England ; 

 of these 21 are Lamellibranchiate and 17 Palliobranchiate bivalves. 

 The total number of German species is 116, of which 21 are plants. 

 In England we have 143, including 7 plants. The total number of 

 known Permian species is stated as 237. In a contribution to the 

 palseontology of the Triassic beds, an essay on the organic remains 

 of the Muschelkalk near Jena, Dr. E. Smid enumerates 81 species. 

 A striking feature of the assemblages of fossils in both Permian and 

 Triassic series is the very small number of peculiar generic types. 

 Of all the zones of life in time, these are the most unprolific in new 

 and distinct generic types. Species they have in plenty of their own, 

 but almost all belong to genera that are more important either above 

 or below their horizon, than they are within them. 



A long list might be given of recent papers on Oolitic, Cretaceous, 

 and Tertiary palseontology, all more or less interesting, none without 

 its value. For indications of most of these t would refer my hearers 

 to the excellent ' Palseontographica ' of Dunker and von Meyer, and 

 the useful pages of the ' Jahrbuch ' of Leonhard and Broun. The 

 memoirs by Reuss on cretaceous and other fossils are especially de- 

 serving of attention. In America, too, there is much doing in the 

 study of organic remains. The vertebrata have found a most able 

 investigator and describer in Dr. Joseph Leidy, who promises to be 

 for the United States what Owen is to us. Much that I could wish 

 to say on the progress of cretaceous and eocene palaeontology I must 

 for the present reserve ; and of that of the newer tertiaries I will con- 

 fine my remarks to an important work, yet uncompleted, the contents 

 of which are equally worthy of notice at a time when the relations of 

 the middle and lower tertiaries are subjects of discussion. 



Most highly, indeed, to be commended is the admirably illustrated 

 monograph of the miocene moUusca of the Vienna basin, published 

 at the cost of the Austrian government and written by Dr. Homes, 

 at whose disposal the fine collections of Partsch have been placed for 



