Annual Report of the Council. 121 



find a considerable number of less known forms dealt with 

 under generic names which Williamson himself instituted 

 for their reception, owing to the fact that they could not 

 be included in those previously established. Among these 

 are Astromyelon, Lyginodendron, Kaloxylon, Heterangium, 

 and some others, for our first knowledge of which we are 

 indebted to the memoirs under consideration. On a 

 cursory examination of some of the memoirs, they appear 

 to be made up of somewhat heterogeneous materials,, 

 several distinct plants being dealt with, to each of which 

 a few pages only are devoted. In a measure there is truth 

 in this; but the conditions under which the author was 

 compelled to work, often excluded a more systematic 

 mode of treatment. The fossils he had to deal with were, 

 almost without exception, of a fragmentary character, 

 sometimes well, but often badly preserved, disjecta membra, 

 in fact, in the widest sense of the words. Clearly, the 

 structure and morphological nature of these fragments 

 must be investigated in the first instance, before any 

 attempt could be made, with a reasonable hope of success, 

 to bring them into their proper relations with one another, 

 and reconstruct the organism of which they were the 

 scattered and fossilised remains. Recognising this, 

 Williamson dealt as completely as possible with such 

 fragments as came to hand from time to time, and by 

 linking on the new facts which were successively brought 

 to light with the older facts previously established, 

 gradually led up to as perfect a knowledge of the types 

 dealt with, as the specimens at his service would allow. 

 With regard to the joint memoirs, every palseobotanist 

 will admit that they are of high excellence and impor- 

 tance. Here it was possible to make the descriptions 

 more systematic and precise, and, by the addition of 

 further observations, to bring our knowledge of the 

 plants considered into line with that of recent forms. 



