CIV PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



probability of the lowest portion of the Devonian system belonging 

 to the Silurian, and the upper to the Carboniferous. 



M. Von Meyer then gives a detailed description of the genus Ar- 

 cliegosaurus ; and nothing can more strikingly exhibit the extensive 

 range of the genus at the Carboniferous epoch than the fact that 

 271 specimens have passed under the inspection of M. Yon Meyer, 

 in addition to two specimens from England, and three others de- 

 scribed by Goldfuss, Burmeister, or Jager, which had not been per- 

 sonally examined by him : of these he has figured 102, and, having 

 ascertained, from careful examination and comparison, that the em- 

 bryonic condition and stages of growth of the animal may be recog- 

 nized, he unites A. medius and A. minor of Goldfuss with A. Decheni, 

 — an arrangement which reduces the genus to two species, A. Decheni, 

 and A. latirostris. A short notice of Apateon pedestris and of Scle- 

 rocephalus Hauseri closes this section of the work, — both being of 

 the Labyrinthodont type, but yet distinct from the genus Archego- 

 saurus : the latter is from shale resting upon beds of coal ; the 

 former (Apateon) from the coal-shale of Minister- Appel, being the 

 first specimen which carried the epoch of reptilian life back to the 

 Carboniferous formation. 



The other section of the work of Yon Meyer, published during the 

 last year, is devoted to the plants of the Chalk Formation of the 

 Hartz, from Blankenburg and Quedlinburg. The interesting cha- 

 racter of the Chalk flora, from the many points of approximation 

 to the existing flora which it affords, is well known. M. Yon Meyer 

 reviews the works of his predecessors, and by description and illustra- 

 tion endeavours to reform anything which may have been defective in 

 them. From the genus Crednera, Zenker, so remarkable for its 

 hazel-like leaves, 11 species have been transferred to the genus 

 Ettinghausenia, of Stiehler, which resembles the Cistidce : these were 

 all from the Blankenburg deposits. Those of the Long Mountain 

 near Quedlinburg, have yielded, of Ferns, the species Weichselia Lu- 

 dovice, Stiehler ; of Pandaneae, Pandanus Simildce, Stiehler; of Cyca- 

 dese, Pterophyllum Ernestines, Stiehler : and it may be added that 

 the chemical examination of other specimens detected the former 

 presence of organic vegetable bodies by the quantity, though small, 

 of carbonaceous matter they contain. A description of the flora of 

 the younger Brown- coal, by M. E. Ludwig, adds value to the work 

 of Yon Meyer, and displays, as usual, a still nearer approximation to 

 the existing flora, as such names as Vaucheria, Conferva, Potamo- 

 qeton, Pinus, Taccus, Myrica, Arundo, Lobelia, Magnolia, &c. &c. 

 testify, — even our very recent discovery, Victoria regina, finding its 

 representative in the genus Holopleura of Ludwig, to which he 

 gives the specific name Victoria, from its near approach to the genus 

 of that name. 



It cannot be doubted that the brief notice I have given of a por- 

 tion of a great work will add weight to what I have already stated 

 in pointing out to you the great merits and services of those di- 

 stinguished palaeontologists, Yon Meyer and Dunker. Many more 

 names might be cited as a proof of the universal spread of enthu- 



