62 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 1 894, 



Messrs. Duncan, Hinde, Bather, Gregory, Sharman, Newton, 

 Waters, Eupert Jones, Shrubsole. and Buckman have all been con- 

 tributors to this branch of science. Most of these matters are for 

 the consideration of specialists, and would come more directly under 

 the cognizance of a President who was himself a general palaeonto- 

 logist. I venture, however, to draw your attention to the valuable 

 work of Prof. Rupert Jones amongst the Entomostraca. He has 

 described and illustrated in two papers Palaeozoic ostracoda from 

 North America, Wales, Ireland, Prance, and the Bosphorus, showing 

 in particular the wide distribution of some of the species. Two 

 more well-illustrated papers have been devoted to Palaeozoic ostra- 

 coda from Westmoreland and the Girvan district, and on this 

 occasion the Senior Secretary expressed his obligations for the 

 trouble which the Author had taken in studying these obscure fossils 

 from the Cross Pell inlier. During the present session, as you will 

 remember, Prof. Rupert Jones assisted Messrs. Andrews and Jukes- 

 Browne in determining certain ostracoda from the Vale of Wardour 

 with results which might almost be deemed revolutionary. We 

 hope, also, to see his latest contribution ' On the EhaBtic and some 

 Liassic Ostracoda of Britain ' published in the May number of the 

 Quarterly Journal. 



Paleobotany. — Although there are a few short notices by other 

 authors, the only contribution of any magnitude under this heading 

 is one by Mr. Starkie Gardner ' On the Leaf-beds and Gravels of 

 Ardtun in Mull,' with notes by Mr. Cole. This paper is, in the main, 

 a redescription of the beds which were discovered by the Duke of 

 Argyll about 43 years ago, and of their contents. One of the 

 Author's objects was to prove that instead of belonging to the 

 Miocene these floras are of Eocene age, and in fact older than the 

 Thanet Beds. Summarizing their contents, it appears that only 

 two vascular cryptogams are known, whilst among the gymno- 

 sperms Ginkgo is exceedingly abundant, associated with Podocarjnis 

 and Taxus. There are no monocotyledons beyond a liliaceous- 

 looking leaf and a few reed-like stems. The dicotyledons are 

 abundant, the collections being said to include more than 30 dis- 

 tinct species, most of them so adequately represented that the range 

 of variation in the leaf is practically ascertained. Some remarkably 

 well-preserved specimens from the Limestone of Ardtun are figured 

 in the accompanying plates, which were executed by Mr. Gardner 

 himself. 



