Xi^tviii PROCEEDIN&S OF THE GEOLOGlCAli §66iETf . 



ferous order, having dots oh the vessels in a single series, and accom- 

 panied by oblique striation, in this respect resembling the woody 

 tissue of the Yew ; it receives the name of Prbtotaccites Logani *. 

 "We are indebted to the same observer for a,dditional notices regard- 

 ing the plants of the true Coal-measures. Mr. Binneyf has added 

 some hew facts to the history of Stigmaria, which owes so much to 

 his labours ; Mr; Morris J describes a Pern with unusual neuration 

 from Coalbrook Dale ; some details are given by myself of a fruit 

 from the Wealdeh of Swanage ; and Mr. Bunbury§ has contributed 

 the results of a careful examination of the fossil tertiary plants of 

 Madeira, which manifest a great general analogy with the actual 

 flora of the island. 



The fossil plants of the Jurassic beds of the Yenetiah Alps have 

 become the subject of an interesting essay by De Zigno, who finds 

 them to be closely allied to the plants of the Oolitic series of York- 

 Shire ; thus confirming the law now so generally accepted, which 

 leads us to expect over large geographical areas similarity of specific 

 forms of life in strata of equal antiquity. 



In the study of the remains of ancient vegetation, more than 

 ordinary difficulties are to be encountered. Beldom do we find more 

 than fragments in their native repositories ; the soft or brittle ma- 

 terial which encloses them is liable to fracture ; the surface of de- 

 posit exposed is usually very small ; and the whole collection very 

 insignificant. The tertiary plants of CEningen have indeed yielded a 

 rich harvest of fragments to Prof. Heer ; those of Madeii'a have been 

 fortunately collected in some quantity and submitted to this palaeon- 

 tologist, and also to our own Bunbury, whose careful examination Of 

 them has just a^^peared in our Journal || . Materials for the Tertiary- 

 Flora of Europe gradually accumulate ; and I may call attention to 

 two of the latest and most interesting of these efforts in this direc- 

 tion—one relating to the brown-coal deposit of the Lower Khine ; the 

 other to the beds of the Yal d'Arno, 200 feet below the remains 

 of Elephas antiquus and JRliinoceros leptorJiimts. In this latter 

 repository, and in some other localities in Tuscany, Count Strozzi 

 has for some time been engaged in mining for plants. The result 

 of his labours in the Yal d'Arno is the discovery of fifty-nine species 

 of plants, belonging to thirty- six genera, mostly now living in the 

 neighbouring coimtries ; Amentaceous plants and JuglandaceaB are 

 in large proportion. Of the species, twenty-one, marked as new, 

 are mentioned only as Tuscan. Of the thirty-eight which were 

 known before, twenty- three are found at CEningen or Locle, in 

 Switzerland, and eleven at Schossnitz. The conclusion adopted by 

 M. C. T. Gaudin^ is, that this Tuscan fossil flora forms the link 

 betv^^een the beds of CEningen and those carbonaceous beds of 

 Utznaeh and Durnten which contain the Elephas antiquus and 

 Rhinoceros leptorhi7ius. Several of these species appear again in the 

 beds of Sanganello, in Piedmont (supposed to be Upper Miocene) ; 



* G-eol. Proc. Jan. 5, 1859. t Quart. Journ. G-eol. Soc. vol. xv. p. 76. 



I Ibid. p. 80. § Ibid. p. 50. || Vol. xv. p. 50. 



% Bulletin de la Soc. Yaud. vol. vi. p. 43, 1858. 



