XXXV1 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
main coal. This is a subject well-deserving of attention. That the 
plant named Stigmaria fucoides is a root, may now be considered as 
an opinion somewhat commonly adopted. The geological inferences 
thence arising are highly important, more especially when we refer 
to the conditions under which our paleeozoic coal has been usually 
formed. 
Mr. Sharpe, in his paper on the fossil remains of Mollusca from 
the Paleeozoic Formations of the United States contamed in the col- 
lection of Mr. Lyell, besides a comparison between the older fossili- 
ferous accumulations of North America and of Europe, and a list of 
the published species of Mollusca recognised in that collection, enters 
into a more detailed examination of some of the species contamed in 
that list. He thus passes under review Avicula Boydiu, A. qua- 
drula, A. naviformis, Leptena demissa, L. depressa, Orthis carinata, 
O. parva, Pentamerus galeatus, Spirifer biforatus, Sp. macronotus, 
Sp. plicatus, the genus Strophomena, Terebratula aspera, T. ungui- 
formis, and Porcellia ornata. 
The same collection afforded Mr. Sharpe the data for a new genus, 
belonging to the Brachiopodous Mollusca and named by him 7’rema- 
tis, an account of which formed another communication to the So- 
ciety. In general appearance this shell is similar to Orbicula, in 
which genus it has hitherto been placed. It “ differs from Orbieula 
in the punctated structure of its shell, and in having the valves united. 
by a hinge, while it is distinguished from Teredratula and the other 
hinged forms of Brachiopods by the ligament passing through the 
ventral valve. It thus forms a connecting link of great interest be- 
tween several genera.”’ The species of 7’rematis, described as Orbr- 
cule, are considered Lower Silurian fossils. Three American and one 
English species are described by Mr. Sharpe. 
Appended to the communication of Prof. Sedgwick on the Fossils 
of the Skiddaw Slates, is an account by Mr. M‘Coy of those fossils, 
in which, after noticmg the occurrence of Graptolites sagittarius, 
he describes a graptolite as new under the name of G. latus, and also 
as hitherto unnoticed, two species of fucoids, Chondritis informis and 
Ch. acutangulus. He also considers that there are sufficient data on 
which to found a new genus, under the name of Palcochorda, deseri- 
bing two species, P. minor and P. major. 
Those present at our last ordinary meeting in this room must have 
been gratified by the exhibition of the mass of bones of the Dinornis 
and other fossil birds of New Zealand, collected there by Mr. Walter 
Mantell, son of our colleague, Dr. Mantell, who at the same meeting 
communicated a paper to us on these bones, chiefly however with a 
view of illustrating their mode of occurrence in the deposits of New 
Zealand. The epllection of bones was the finest hitherto made and 
transmitted to this country. ‘It consists of between 700 and 800 
specimens, the bones belonging to birds of various size, and periods 
of growth,” some, Dr. Mantel] observes, ‘‘of aged individuals and 
others of very young animals, in which the epiphyses of the long 
bones are still distinct from the shaft.” 
As Prof. Owen was the first to make us acquainted with the gigan- 
