66 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



February 21, 1883. 

 J. W. Hulkb, Esq., F.R.S., President, in the Chair. 



Rev. John Birks, 4 Park Terrace, Taunton ; Capt. James Scotfc 

 Black, 4 Upper Brook Street, Grosvenor Square, W. ; John Bradford, 

 Esq., East Acton, W. ; Thomas Alexis Dash, Esq., M. Inst. C.E., 

 The Hollies, Feltham, Middlesex ; Henry Lewis, Esq., Annesley, 

 Nottingham ; and Thomas Morris, Esq., Bridge House, Warrington, 

 were elected Fellows of the Society. 



A set of Thirty Microscopic Slides, showing the condition of gold 

 and sands found with Placer Gold in California, were presented to 

 the Museum by H. G. Hanks, Esq., State Mineralogist, San 

 Francisco. 



The Secretary read the translation of a letter from Prof. H. R. 

 Gbppert, F.M.G.S., relating to the first volume of his work on 

 * Vegetable Remains in Amber,' of which the first completed copy 

 had been sent by him to the Society's Library in acknowledgment 

 of the award to him of the Murchison Medal. The letter is as 

 follows : — 



Honoured Mr. President, — 



I have just received from Danzig the information that my 

 work upon Amber, which has been printed there, is ready for issue. 

 At my special desire at least one copy of it has been got ready, which, 

 although I have not seen it, I have the honour to send to your 

 honourable Society. It is the first Section upon the Coniferae of 

 Amber, a work which called for much preliminary labour, and the 

 production of which has consequently been delayed until the late 

 evening of my life. Amber is indisputably the richest of all fossils 

 in marvels, seeing that it alone, by its vegetable and animal 

 enclosures, has preserved the extremely rich flora and fauna, and 

 furnished us with an insight into that period of which no other 

 can boast. In this transparent grave of a flora long since passed 

 away, remains of plants have been found by me which are 

 regarded as characteristic plants of every Miocene flora, and thus 

 indicate their position with certainty. In the present work these 

 are CupressineaB : and among them such as furnish proofs of the 

 infinite duration of a species, as Thuja occidentalism Biota orientalis, 

 Cupressus sempervirens, Taxodium, &c. This will be still more 

 recognizable in the inclusions of cryptogamic cellular plants, espe- 

 cially the Fungi. Some 23 species of all the chief groups are 

 present — even an lsaria with Astrostalagmus as evidences of alter- 

 nation of generations, Ascomycetes, Peziza, Clavaria, Boletus, which, 

 like the species of Lichens, cannot be distinguished from those of the 

 present day — and, with the numerous mosses present, will complete 



