﻿Cxiv PEOCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1908, 



foreign regions by Mr. A. W. Waters. Mesozoic ammonites have 

 long been in the charge of Mr. S. S. Buckman, who has recently 

 also taken over the brachiopods. Fossil crinoids have been well 

 described by Prof. J. W. Gregory and Dr. F, A. Bather. Dr. G. J. 

 Hinde is our chief authority on radiolaria and sponge-spicules. 

 Dr. Wheelton Hind has devoted himself more particularly to the 

 Carboniferous bivalves ; and Mr. H. Woods has contributed an 

 exhaustive account of the moUusca of the Chalk Rock. 



The Society has been fortunate in counting among its Associates 

 enthusiastic palaeontologists devoted to the study of fossil plants. 

 In earlier years the veteran Sir Joseph Hooker, and also Sir Charles 

 Bunbury, contributed papers on this subject. In later days the 

 progress of fossil botany was aided by E. W. Binney and Mr. W. 

 Carruthers. Dr. E. Kidston is now at the head of those who in 

 this country study the structure and range of Carboniferous plants. 

 The value of Prof. Seward's contributions to the Quarterly Journal 

 on Mesozoic plants, as well as of his other writings on Palaeo- 

 botany, has been fitly recognized this year by the award to him of 

 the Murchison Medal. Mr. Arber has recently described the plants 

 of the Upper Culm-Measures of Devon and Cornwall. 



I have already alluded to the excellent work done by women 

 among fossils, particularly in tracing out palseontological zones among 

 the Palaeozoic formations. But some of these workers devote 

 themselves to the study of the zoological characters and relations 

 of the organisms. Thus we have received and published papers on 

 the Carboniferous gasteropods by Miss Donald (Mrs. Longstaff) ; 

 on graptolites, especially in their zonal relations, by Miss EUes and 

 Miss Wood (Mrs. Shakespear) ; and on some of the fossils in the 

 Oxford Museum by Miss Sollas and Miss Healey. 



V. Physiography. 



The Geological Society having started on its career with the 

 resolution of gathering facts rather than framing theories to 

 account for them, has adhered to this resolution with remarkable 

 constancy. No one can peruse the extended series of the Society's 

 publications without noticing how small is the proportion of the 

 theoretical element in them. Por a long time, indeed, anything 

 in the shape of a new theory, though the reading of it might be 

 tolerated at an evening meeting (perhaps for the pleasure and 

 excitement of pulling it to pieces in discussion), was almost certain 



