1872.] WOODWARD EOCENE CRUSTACEA. 25 



species, has much resemblance in its general facies, and especially 

 in its -richness in ferns, to that of the Coal-formation. 



To geologists acquainted with the stratigraphy and the accom- 

 panying animal fossils, Dr. Heer's conclusions will of course appear 

 untenable ; but they may regard them as invalidating the evidence 

 of fossil plants ; and for tbis reason it is, I think, desirable to give 

 publicity to the above statements. 



I may add that, since the publication of my paper in 1858, much 

 additional material from the Lower Carboniferous Coal-measures 

 has come into my hands from Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and 

 Newfoundland, which may throw light on the corresponding floras 

 of tbe more northern regions, and which I hope to publish in the 

 form of a Report similar to that lately issued on the Devonian 

 flora. 



P.S.— -I consider the British equivalent of the Lower Coal-mea- 

 sures of Eastern America to be the Lower Limestone Shales, the 

 Tuedian group of Mr. Tate (1858), but which have recently been 

 called the " Calciferous Sandstone " (a name preoccupied for a Cam- 

 brian group in America). This group does not constitute " beds of 

 passage " to the Devonian, more especially in Eastern America, where 

 the Lower Coal-formation rests uncontbrmably on the Devonian, 

 and is broadly distinguished by its fossils. 



Discussion. 



Mr. Carruthers stated that the list of the eleven Lower Carboni- 

 ferous plants published in Principal Dawson's ' Acadian Geology ' did 

 not contain a single species found in Bear Island ; but, on the other 

 hand, some species and several well-marked forms were common to 

 the Bear-Island deposits and the Devonians of North America, and 

 he had no doubt that Prof. Heer had in his paper rightly correlated 

 these floras. As to the age of these plant-bearing beds, found alike 

 in Bear Island, Ireland, the Yosges Mountains, Canada, and Australia, 

 Mr. Carrathers said that it was difficult to draw any lines which 

 would separate the Palaeozoic plants into clearly marked and distinct 

 floras ; but if the Devonian is to be retained as a system, all these 

 plant-bearing beds belonged rather to that system than to the 

 Carboniferous. 



3. Eurther Notes on Eocene Crustacea from Portsmouth. By 

 Henry AVoodward, Esq., F.G.S., E.Z.S., of the British Museum. 



[Plates I. & II.] 



On December 21st, 1870, I laid before this Society descriptions of 

 three new forms of Crustacea, obtained by Messrs. C. J. A. Meyer 

 and Caleb Evans, during the progress of the "Dockyard Extension 

 Works" at Portsmouth, from strata of Lower Eocene age. Since that 

 date, these ardent collectors have pursued their studies of the beds 

 exposed, and continued to secure all the fossils within their reach. 

 Through their kindness I have from time to time been enabled to 



