ANKIVEKSAKZ ADDRESS OP THE PRESIDENT. xli 



pointed out by Mr. Carruthers, but more advanced than the modern 

 Equiseta, while the Galamodendra were similar in general structure, 

 but much more woody plants. 



Professor Heer has described the flora of Bear Island, in latitude 

 74° 30' 'E. He considers it to belong to the lower part of the Car- 

 boniferous series. There are eighteen species of plants, having a 

 close relation with those of the Yellow Sandstones of county Cork and 

 of the Greywacke of the Black Porest. Taking also the fossil flora 

 of Parry Island and Melville Island, which he considers the equiva- 

 lent of that of the Bear-Island beds, we have a total of 77 species 

 of plants. JN^ot less remarkable than the occurrence of this rich and 

 luxuriant vegetation in those arctic regions during this Carboni- 

 ferous period, is the appearance of a flora equally rich and varied, in 

 the same regions, in the comparatively recent Miocene times. 



Mr. Billings has made in the Lower Silurian rocks of Canada the 

 interesting discovery of a Trilobite (Asaphus plati/GepTialus) with its 

 appendages preserved and the hypostome in position. It shows 

 that the creature had eight pairs of legs ; so that probably these 

 Crustacea were walking rather than swimming animals. Mr. 

 Woodward has found in a specimen presented some years since to 

 the British Museum by Dr. Bigsby traces of similar appendages. 

 He considers that the Trilobita should now be placed next to, if 

 not actually with, the modern Isopoda. 



Dr. Grey has sent us some interesting specimens of Dicynodont 

 fossUs, jaws of reptiles, and coal-plants, from the Karoo beds of 

 South Africa. 



Mr. Guppy is of opinion that he has detected an Eozoon, with a 

 coral and echinoderms, in some Trinidad rocks, the age of which is 

 uncertain, but considered by the author to be pre-Silurian. 



The Pal^ontogeaphical Society continues its valuable publica- 

 tions. The volume for 1870 contains the concluding part of Mr. 

 Davidson's great Avork on the Brachiopods. It completes the Silu- 

 rian Brachiopoda, consisting of 28 genera and 210 species, while the 

 whole work, by that author, forms three volumes, with 150 plates, 

 aU of which have been drawn and contributed by Mr. Davidson 

 himself. Another paper of importance is the complete monograph 

 of British Mesozoic Mammals by Prof. Owen, containing descriptions 

 and illustrations of 15 genera and 27 species. 



Independently of your own Society, the progress of geology is 

 being actively advanced by local societies, the number of which is 



VOL. XXVII. d 



