478 Geological Society : — 



that of greatest spot-area. The examination of many series of 

 observations has shown how difficult it will be to arrive at a con- 

 clusion for a quantity so small as 2 inches of rain. 



It is evident that a larger tract of country than Great Britain 

 should be chosen, and the approximate rainfall be deduced from 

 the greatest possible number of stations. Germany and Trance 

 may give sufficient data for such a trial. "Were the result well 

 marked, there would be reason to seek for its confirmation in 

 other countries ; but to undertake this labour, better grounds, I 

 think, must be found than I have hitherto been able to obtain. 

 The admirable series of observations which Mr. Symons is ob- 

 taining will suffice for the future, as for the past, ten years to give 

 a very near approximation to the excess or deficiency of rainfall 

 in Great Britain. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



[Continued from p. 410.] 



June 24, 1874.— John Evans, Esq., F.K.S., President, 

 In the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " New Carboniferous Polyzoa." By Prof. John Young, M.D., 

 F.G.S., and John Young, Esq., F.G.S., Hunterian Museum, Glasgow 

 University. 



The authors described two new forms of Polyzoa from the Carbo- 

 niferous Limestone shales near Glasgow. For one of these they 

 proposed to form a new genus, Actinostoma, allied to Fenestella, 

 with the frond erect, and poriferous on one face only, and with the 

 fenestrules oblong. The species they named A. fenestratum. The 

 second species was described under the name of Glauconome stel- 

 lipora. 



2. " On Pdlceocoryne and other Polyzoal Appendages." By Prof. 

 John Young, M.D., F.G.S., and John Young, Esq., F.G.S., Hun- 

 terian Museum, Glasgow University. 



The authors maintained that the structures described by MM. 

 Duncan and Jenkins under the name of Palceocoryne, are not inde- 

 pendent organisms, but mere processes of the Polyzoa on which 

 they occur, the cells at the base being only the cells of the Polyzoa. 

 They stated that the tissues of the two structures are perfectly con- 

 tinuous, that the " dactylose basal lobes" are the branches of the 

 Polyzoon of which the processes are continuations, that the stem, 

 capitulum, and branches of the processes are solid, that there is no 

 normal aperture in the capitulum, that the stems do not always 

 bear capitula, even when they give off branches, and that in many 

 cases they are mere processes without either capitulum or branches. 

 According to their observations, the stellate processes called Palceo- 

 coryne are given off chiefly from the poriferous face, and the other 

 processes from the poriferous and non-poriferous faces, and from the, 



