ANNIVEESAEY ADDRESS OF THE PEESIDENT. XXXIX 



and three are comraon to Tuscany, Piedmont, and CEningen {Pla- 

 tanus acer'oides, Carpinus pyramidaliSj and Laurus jormceps). 



Of mucli later date than these are the plants collected from tho 

 prehistoric tufas of Somma, all of species hving in the vicinity, 

 according to Gaudin, who also mentions among the fossil plants of 

 Lipari Palms, Smilacc, Quercus, Laurus, and AristolocJiia. 



The labours of Wessel and Weber and earlier observers on the 

 flora of the brown -coal of the Lower Ehine have yielded 237 

 distinct forms, of which 94 have been found at QSningen and other 

 locahties, but 143 as yet only in the Brown-coal. The plants 

 described include 5 Ferns, 3 Palms, 21 Conifers, 15 Quercus, 

 13 Laurinese, 7 Proteacese, 9 Acer, 7 Juglans, 18 Leguminosse,— a 

 singidar assemblage, as Mr. Bimbury remarks ; for the Proteaceae are 

 now living in South Africa and Australia, countries entirely desti- 

 tute of CupuHferse, which are so largely represented in this floray 

 and in other regions of north latitude*. 



It were much to be desired that the processes of mining should 

 be resorted to in the Oolitic shales of England, as at Gristhorpe and 

 Cloughton, and many other places in Yorkshire, and in the tertiary 

 shales at Bournemouth, Studland, and other points in the South of 

 England, where sufficient traces occur of stems, leaves, and fruits 

 of plants, to encoiu^age the hope of important results. 



Zoology. 



There is no ground for fear that the study of the perished forms 

 of animal life should ever lose its hold on the serious attention of 

 geologists. To make this study available in so difficult a matter, 

 demands, however, somewhat more than a slight acquaintance with 

 Zoology. No great success can be expected in Palaeontology by him 

 who is not to some considerable degree trained in Comparative 

 Anatomy and Physiology. Yery slight and trifling, if not mis- 

 chievous, is that minute industry- which, unguided by philosophical 

 reflection, busies itself only with differentials of specimens, and 

 abandons the true integration of species, the work of the real na- 

 turalist. On this account, the conscientious labours of Davidson on 

 Brachiopoda and of Wright on Echinodermata, which are among the 

 later works of the Palseontographical Society, are to be mentioned 

 with honour ; so also must we listen with respect to the profound 

 reflections of Owen, addressed to the British Association at Leeds > 

 and to the voice which, though coming from the Transatlantic 

 world, brings to Europe the wholesome influence of Agassiz, who 

 first opened to us a road among the confused assemblages of un- 

 known fossil fishes. 



Not intending in this Addi^ess to make Palaeontology a prominent 

 object, I shall merely refer to the additions made by Dr. Kinahan 

 to our knowledge of Oldhamia, Mr. Wetherell's notice of Graphu- 

 larian nodules in the London Clay and the Crag, !Mr. Bates's 

 description of a small Crustacean from the Magnesian Limestone of 

 Durham, Mr. C. Gould's new Crustacean from Atherfield, Mr. Salter's 



* Bunbury, Quart. Journ. Geol. iSoc. vol. xv, 1859. 



