290 



THE GEOLOGIST. 



large work on the Fossil Plants of the Oolitic Rocks (" Flora fossilis Formationis 

 Oolithic^"), two parts of which have been pubUshed, the author finds, as maybe 

 expected^ some discrepancies in the published opinions as to the place which the 

 plant-bearing beds of Scania, Richmond (U.S.), India, Australia, and South 

 Afiica respectively are entitled to in the geological scale. As the apparent weight 

 of evidence place's some of these deposits in other formations than the Jurassic, 

 and as some are still very doubtfully placed, the author omits them fi'om his 

 sources of Jm-assic plants. 



In the two parts of his work which he has presented to the Society, the author 

 describes the Jurassic Calamites (including the Asferophyllites), the Phyllothecce, 

 and Lquiseta. The plates of figures accompanying the foregoing, but not yet 

 described, are recommended by the author to the notice of English paleobotanists, 

 as illustrative of interesting but somewhat obscure ferns ; and he particularly 

 requests that search should be made in the Oolites of Yorkshke for specimens of 

 Pachyfjteris with pinnules having a single midrib. Sig. de Zigno supports Stem- 

 berg and Bronn in the suggestion that under the term Equisetites columnaris 

 authors have confounded two distinct forms ; one from Brora and Yorkshire, with 

 thick joints, and illustrated by Konig ; the other being found in the Lias and 

 Trias. Some remarks on the probable relations of Glossopteris and Sagenopteris 

 follow. 



The remains of Ferns in Jiu'assic beds of the Venetian Alps are numerous, 

 though the species are few. The fructification is often evident ; and the epidermis 

 of the fronds can be sometimes separated for microscopical examination. The 

 Cycadece have more species ; and the Coniferce (especially the Brachyphylla) are 

 numerous. 



3. " On a Group of supposed Reptilian Eggs {Oolithes BatJwnicce) from the Great 

 Oohte of Cirencester." By Professor J. Buckman, F.G.S. 



The specimen referred to was obtained by Mr. Daiton from the Harebushes 

 quarry near Ckencester, and presents evidence of a compact cluster of eight oval 

 bodies (each about 2 inches long and 1 inch across) in a mass of oolitic rock. These 

 oval bodies being equally rounded at the ends, and in this differing from birds' 

 eggs, the author thinks that they must have been the eggs of a reptile. The egg- 

 shells were very thin, have been here and there puckered by pressure, and are 

 more or less occupied with calc-spar. 



[The specimen was exhibited to the meeting.] 



4. " On some Sections of the Strata near Oxford." No. I. By Professor 

 Philhps, Pres. G.S. 



In this communication Professor Phillips gave the details of sections showing 

 the base and the top of the Great Oolite in the Valley of the Cherwell. This oolite, 

 with sandy layers below and variable argillaceous beds above (capped by the Corn- 

 brash), has been entirely referred to the Great Oolite formation by the Geological 

 Siu-vey, and has been traced through Northamptonshire to the cuttings in the 

 Great Northern Railway near Stamford and Grantham ; and continues through 

 Lincolnshire to the Humber. On the north of that river this series is continued 

 by the Oolite of Brough and Cave, and is recognised again in the Millepore-rock 

 at the base of the Gristhorpe Clifis. Hence it appears that the calcareous shelly 

 beds of Gristhorpe on the Yorkshire coast are still to be assigned, as they were in 

 earlier works, to the Great Oolite group, notwithstanding they contain a few fossils 

 which in the South of England are prevalent in the Inferior Oolite, together with 

 many the distribution of which is not there limited to one member of the Great or 

 Bath Oolite series. 



May ISth, 1859.— 1. " Pahchthyologic Notes, No. 12. Remarks on the Nomen- 

 clature of the Fishes of the Old Red Sandstone." By Sir P. Egerton, Bart., 

 M.P.,F.R.S., F.G.S. &c. 



Premising with some remarks on the in many respects unsatisfactoiy condition 

 of the nomenclature of the fishes of the Old Red Sandstone, the author refers to 

 the late revival, by Dr. Pander, of the discussion as to the priority of Eichwald's 

 name " Asterolepis" over the " Pterichthys" of Agassiz ; and, after a detail of the 

 circumstances of the case, Sir Philip states that there is every reason for the 

 retention of the name Pterichthys for the " winged fish" discovered at Cromartie 



