1867.] ( 261 ) 



9. GEOLOGY AND PALAEONTOLOGY. 



{Including the Proceedings of the Geological Society.) 



Amongst the publications of the quarter most deserving of notice 

 ranks the volume of the Palaaontographical Society for 1865, which 

 has lately appeared. It contains four parts of as many monographs, 

 and although we can convey no idea of their value in this Chronicle, 

 we must not omit to give an outline of the contents of each of them. 



The first contribution consists of Part I. of a monograph of the 

 Foraminifera of the Crag, by Professor T. Eupert Jones, Mr. W. 

 K. Parker, and Mr. H. B. Brady. From a zoological point of 

 view it may be regarded as a supplement to Messrs. Jones and 

 Parker's paper on Arctic and Subarctic Foraminifera, in the 

 c Philosophical Transactions.' Geologically, its chief value is as a 

 record of the exact position and relationships of the different groups 

 (whether they be considered genera, species, or varieties) of these 

 lowly organisms, deduced from careful investigations; and it 

 appears that notwithstanding the extremely variable nature of 

 Foraminifera, the authors are enabled to recognize different zoolo- 

 gical zones by means of the facies of the assemblages of these fossils 

 which occur in them. 



The next memoir is the first part of Dr. Duncan's " Monograph 

 of the British Fossil Corals," being a supplement to the one by 

 MM. Milne-Edwards and Jules Haime. The introduction is a 

 very complete essay on the anatomy, physiology, and classification 

 of corals, and well deserves a careful study. The description of the 

 corals of the Brockenhurst beds will no doubt form the basis of 

 future researches into the relationships of this and other deposits, 

 which have been variously termed Lower Oligocene and Upper 

 Eocene. The mollusca show the Brockenhurst strata to be related 

 to those of Latdorf ; but the corals are distinct. Dr. Duncan is 

 therefore probably right in suggesting that the coral-fauna of the 

 former deposit belonged to an oceanic and reef area, and that of the 

 latter to a coast line. This instalment concludes with a description 

 of some additional species of corals from the Eocene of the Isle of 

 Wight and from the London clay. 



The introduction to the next monograph, " On the British Fossil 

 Crustacea belonging to the order Merostomata" (Part I.), by Mr. H. 

 Woodward, is of the same character as that to the one just noticed, 

 and deserves the same praise. It is followed by a Bibliography of 

 the order, which does credit to the industry and research of the 

 author, while the description of Pterygotus anglicus, which com- 

 pletes this part, is remarkably exhaustive, and is illustrated both 

 fully and well. 



