1878-1879.] 357 



shifting to Iceland and Jan Mayen islands, where they still burn 

 with great intensity. The paper was illustrated by specimens, 

 and by a diagram of Carnmoney Hill. 



On 1 8th February, the President. Rev. Canon Macllwaine, 

 D.D., M.R.I.A., in the chair, when a paper was read by Mr. W. 

 Phillips, entitled, "Ferns and Fern Collecting." The lecturer 

 commenced by saying that up to a very recent period ferns were 

 unknown as cultivated plants in our houses — that this was owing 

 to a want of knowledge of their habits, but from the accidental 

 growth of a fern in some earth put in a bottle along with the 

 chrysalis of a moth, the idea was first originated, which afterwards 

 developed into miniature cases for our rooms and glass-houses 

 with rockeries, &c v in which ferns could be planted and grown 

 with great success. The ease with which ferns may be gathered, 

 and the low prices at which they may be purchased, enabling the 

 dwellers in towns to provide themselves with a means of enjoy- 

 ment, whose green fronds would look refreshing almost all the 

 year, thus commending themselves to a large number of admirers. 



Ferns have been present on the earth from a very early period, 

 forming a large part of the tropical vegetation, which, afterwards 

 subsiding under the mud and waters of ancient seas, became 

 hardened into coal, their delicate forms revealed to our curious 

 eyes in the shales of the coal formations. M. de Saporta recently 

 announced the discovery of fossil ferns in the Silurian Rocks of 

 Angers, in France. In a slab of schistoze rock, from the middle 

 Silurian strata, containing Calymene tristana, he has found the 

 remains of a large fern, tolerably well preserved, the outline, 

 however, rather imperfect, as though the plant had suffered by 

 long exposure in water. The vegetable matter has disappeared, 

 and its place taken by iron pyrites. In the venation, which is 



