100 



The Naturalist. 



Mettenius soon discovered tlie sexual organs in Ijcopods, and in 1849 

 Hofmeister did the same for the Rhizocarpas, and also in 1855 in the 

 eqiiisetums. To him also is due the discovery of the relation between 

 the reproductive structures of the cryptogams and those of the higher 

 flowering plants. Thus he showed that the embryo sac of a phane- 

 rogam was the analogue and representative of the prothallus of a fern. 



At the present day the great majority of modern botanists are 

 devoting themselves to the study of the laws of vegetable life, the 

 mode of development, and the chemical processes that go on within 

 the plant. The collection of species is a valuable aid in another 

 department — the geographical distribution of plants, hence Prof. 

 Williamson recommended the naturalist not to neglect the collecting 

 and recording of species, and shewed how that all may, in one way or 

 another, aid the grand work of obtaining a complete knowledge of 

 plants. The great question of the present hour is that of evolution : 

 and in considering it for a few moments, he paid a very high and 

 deserved compliment to the splendid researches and deductions of 

 Mr. Darwin — which even those who do not agree with his conclusions 

 must also endorse — for the grandeur of his work, which must mark 

 an epoch in biological science. 



ON THE ORGA.NISATION OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS 

 OF THE COAL MEASUPvES. 



By Thos. Hick, B.A., B. Sc. 



Peof. Wtlliams'on's tenth memoie on this subject has just been printed 

 from the Transactions of the Poyal Society, and is well deserving of 

 close study on the part of both botanists and palseontologists. It is not 

 wanting either in the interest or importance which have characterised 

 the preceding memoirs, but is perhaps chiefly valuable for the complete 

 settlement which it aff'ords of some questions which have hitherto 

 been held in dispute. 



In the first place, the Professor takes up the consideration of the 

 remains of carboniferous plants met with in certain thin shales, 

 imbedded in volcanic ash, which were discovered in 1865 at Laggan 

 Bay, in Arran. These remains were found in the position in which 

 they originally grew, and consist for the most part of thin cylinders of 

 vegetable tissue, which originally formed the outer bark of the stems 

 of trees. The interior of these cylinders " was in most cases filled with 



