ANNIVERSARY ADDRESS OF THE PRESIDENT. 43 



dynamics, and it is much greater than the total of all relating to 

 other branches of our science. 



Two only of the palaeontological papers were botanical, a small 

 proportion considering the general possession of some acquaintance 

 with the forms and distribution of living plants, the great attractive- 

 ness of fossil botany, the information respecting former climates 

 deducible from it, and the accessibility of such rich floras as those 

 of the Tertiaries in the Isles of Wight and Sheppey. The fact that 

 one of the papers related to plants discovered in Wealden rocks near 

 Hastings leads me to call attention to the profusion of vegetable 

 remains in the blue Wealden clays in the neighbourhood of Chilton. 



Of seventeen zoological papers, ten referred to Invertebrata. One 

 of these, by Dr. Hausler, embodied the results of a very laborious 

 study of the arenaceous Foraminifera of the Swiss Jurassic rocks, 

 of which he had determined about sixty species. It is interesting 

 that whilst not a few of these range back to Permian and Carbo- 

 niferous times, most of them closely resemble recent deep-sea species 

 and varieties, yet similar forms have not hitherto been found in the 

 newer rocks. A paper by Mr. P. H. Carpenter on certain Silurian 

 Crinoids, about which there had been previously much difference of 

 opinion, added greatly to our knowledge of the structure and affinities 

 of these obscure and interesting Echinoderms. 



Bryozoa ranging from Palaeozoic to Pliocene formed the subjects 

 of three papers. 



Six communications were received on Corals, of which two by 

 Mr. Tomes showed how largely our knowledge of the fauna of 

 particular stages can be increased by residents in their neighbour- 

 hood who can take advantage of every fresh exposure of rock. The 

 singular beauty of their outward forms, and the admirable symmetry 

 of their internal structure, ever make corals attractive objects of 

 study ; whilst their limitation by circumstances of depth, of tem- 

 perature, and of purity of water (which it is reasonable to infer had 

 the same influence in past as in present time) has been regarded as 

 affording valuable information respecting the physical geography of 

 the regions in which their remains occur. Recent discoveries have 

 proved, however, that their occurrence is less restricted by depth of 

 water than was formerly supposed. 



Two papers only were devoted to Mollusca ; but one of these, in 

 which Lieut.-Col. H. Godwin-Austen identified an Eocene shell from 

 Sheppey with a living genus now restricted to India, was of great 

 interest. 



The remaining seven zoological papers treated of vertebrate remains. 

 In one of them Prof. R. Owen described an imperfect thigh-bone 

 which he referred to Notoiherium, an extinct Australian Marsupial 

 in some points resembling the existing Wombats. The six others 

 related to fossil Reptilia. 



Two of the most important of these were a paper by Prof. H. G. 

 Seele}', " On Neusticosaurus piisillus (Seeley), Simosawrus pusillus 

 (Fraas)," and a paper by Prof. R. Owen " On Generic Characters 

 in the Order Sauropterj'gia." 



