Prof. J. W. Dawson on New Tree Ferns and other Fossils. 231 



March 22. — Prof. John Morris, Yice-President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. "On the ' Passage-beds' in the neighbourhood of Woolhope, 

 Herefordshire, and on the discovery of a new species of Eurypterus, 

 and some new Land-plants in them." By the Rev. P. B. Brodie, 

 M.A., F.G.S. 



The author described as the " passage-beds " between the Silu- 

 rian and Old Red Sandstone formations near Woolhope, a series of 

 shales and sandstones, which at Perton attain a thickness of about 

 17 feet. Here the section includes, in descending order : — 1. Thin- 

 bedded sandstones ; 2. Dark brownish shales ; 3. Yellow Sand- 

 stone ; 4. Olive shales ; 5. Thin-bedded sandstone ; 6. Olive shales, 

 similar to no. 4„ At some localities vegetable remains (Lycopodites, 

 and perhaps Psilopliyton) occur in the olive shales, which also con- 

 tain several Crustacean fossils, including Pterygotus Banksii and a 

 new species of Eurypterus, named by Mr. Woodward E. Brodiei. 

 Upon this species Mr. Woodward presented a note supplementary to 

 Mr. Brodie's paper. 



2. " On the Cliff- sections of the Tertiary Beds west of Dieppe in 

 Normandy and at Newhaven in Susses." By Y/illiam Whitaker, 

 Esq., B.A., F.G.S. 



The author gave details of the sections of the Tertiary beds at 

 the above places, and noticed the occurrence of London clay. Below 

 this formation, at Dieppe, is a mass of sand, the same as that of the 

 u Oldhaven beds " in East Kent, but here less markedly divided 

 from the clay above ; and beneath this sand come the estuarine 

 shelly clays, &c. of the Woolwich beds. 



In the older accounts of the Newhaven section a much less thick- 

 ness of the Tertiary beds is chronicled than may now be seen ; indeed 

 the successive descriptions end upwards with higher and higher 

 beds, owing to the destruction of the coast and the wearing-back of 

 the cliff into higher ground, the highest point seeming to have been 

 at last reached. 



Here the Oldhaven sand is absent, but the Woolwich clays are in 

 greater force ; and the ditch of the new fort shows some very irre- 

 gular masses of gravel, more or less wedged into those clays. 



Both sections show the comparatively wide extent of like condi- 

 tions to those of the Woolwich beds of West Kent. 



3. " On New Tree Perns and other Fossils from the Devonian." 

 By Prof. J. W. Dawson, LL.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



The author referred to the numerous species of ferns known in the 

 Upper and Middle Devonian of America, and to the fact that he had 

 described several large petioles as probably belonging to arborescent 

 species, and also two trunks covered with aerial roots, viz. Psaronius 

 erianus and P. textilis. He also referred to Caulopteris Peachii of 

 Salter as the only tree-fern known in the Devonian of Europe. 



He then described remains of four species of tree-ferns in collec- 

 tions communicated to him by Dr. Newberry of New York. The 

 first of these, Caulopteris LocJcwoodi, was found by the Rev. Mr. Lock- 

 wood at Gilboa, the locality of the Psaronites already mentioned, 



