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1886. ] Geology and Palaeontology. 547 
were brought forward to show that grasses could by ng possibil- 
ity have failed to become associated with the remains of other 
plants in beds deposited under such conditions as those of the 
Eocene had they existed in any profusion then, while further to 
support this argument it was stated that the very similar Oligo- 
cene and Miocene beds all over Europe are crowded with them. 
Further, it was shown that the dentition of all the early Eocene 
herbivorous Mammalia was adopted for crunching fruits, snapping 
twigs, and grubbing of roots, rather than for browsing on such food 
as grass, so that the evolution of true Graminivora, as well as the 
Specialized Carnivora that prey on them, must be post-dated to 
the appearance of the grass itself. The geological history of 
the whole class of insects was reviewed, with the object of support- 
ing the conclusion arrived at as to the post mid-Eocene date of 
grass. Older remains of grass may, however, occur in the last 
series of Tertiary deposits in Spitzbergen, but as yet their age has 
not been accurately correlated. Finally, it was shown that the 
introduction of an aggressive type in vast numbers and of differ- 
ent habits to pre-existing vegetation, exerted an influence on ter- 
-Testrial life altogether without parallel, and for the first time ren- 
dered possible the development of a meadow and prairie vegetation 
as distinct from that of marsh, scrub and forest, with all the at- 
tendant forms of animal and vegetable life to which such vegeta- 
tion is indispensable. 
therefore, according to M. Renault, be regarded as gymnosper- 
mous phanerogams. : 
Secondary—R. F. Tomes (Geol. Mag., March, 1886) SRE 
-two species of Madreporaria of the genera Thecocyathus an 
Trococyathus, from the Upper Lias of Gloucestershire. 
rhary.— R. ‘ 
ingen. It is closely allied to Æ. ewropeus, but the describer 
eningensis, The same paleontologist has described 
concludes that Britain was never otherwise than continental from 
t man came into Britain after the glacial epach. 
t 
- oe of the Middle Red Crag to that of the minor glaciation, - 
th i Lydekker has described the palatal half of Do 
om of a large Erinaceus from the Upper Miocene of — 
iy anterior portion of the cranial rostrum of Melitosaurus — 
mpsoides, a crocodilian from the Miocene of Malta—— 
Great Britain in the Geological Magazine for February, 1886. He : 
Fs 
