BE VIEWS. 



75 



In reference to the age of the New South Wales coal-field, Mr. Edward 

 Hull stated that he had received letters from the Rev. W. B. Clarke, who 

 has for many years been engaged in its exploration, and from Mr. John 

 Mackenzie, who has had considerable experience as a mining surveyor in 

 Wigan and North Wales. It is well known that Mr. Clarke maintains 

 the Palaeozoic age of the carbonaceous deposits of New South Wales, in 

 opposition to Professor M'Coy, who holds that they are of more recent 

 formation (Mesozoic). As Professor M'Coy has never actually visited the 

 New South Wales coal-field, and derives his information from cabinet spe- 

 cimens, men of science will probably prefer the evidence of one who has 

 spent years in personally exploring and collecting from the beds them- 

 selves. In Mr. Clarke's memoir on the ' Recent Geological Discoveries in 

 Australasia' (2nd edit.), the author defends his view of the Palaeozoic age 

 of the coal-bearing strata; and in the letter from Mr. Mackenzie, the 

 writer gives the following series of fossil iferous strata overlying the coal 

 and cannel belonging to the Hon. B. Russell, which, if correct (as there is 

 every reason for supposing), ought to set the question at rest in favour of 

 the true Carboniferous age of those coal-measures. He states, " In a pit 

 above this coal are strata with Fenestella, Stenopora, Orthonota costata, 

 Spir/fer, Producta, Terehratula, etc. In a pit about 100 feet below the 

 same coal, occur Spirifer, Producta, Conularia, and vegetable impres- 

 sions ; about 60 feet lower, Spirifer, Terehratula, Pleurotomaria, and 

 Stenoptera ; and similar shells, accompanied by vegetable remains, are 

 stated to occur still lower." Mr. Mackenzie promises to send specimens of 

 Lepidodendron and Sigillaria from the same beds. 



REVIEWS. 



Journal of Botany. London: Hardwicke. Feb. 1863. 



It has been a matter of astonishment to us, that the science of Bo- 

 tany has had uo Journal in this country for several years. At a time 

 when Hooker's Journal had got thoroughly established, it was suddenly 

 discontinued, in the belief that the Quarterly Proceedings of the Linnean 

 Society would supply all that was needed, but these, although every way 

 suited for the publication of members' papers, could never afford a medium 

 of intercommunication amongst botanists throughout the country, and bo- 

 tanical papers that did not find their way to a learned society were either 

 buried among zoological and other memoirs, or hid in agricultural or 

 horticultural periodicals, where no botanist would expect to find them. 

 It is then satisfactory to hear that simultaneously with our present num- 

 ber, a new ' Journal of Botany, British and Foreign,' will begin its life 

 under the editorship of Dr. B. Seemann, F.L.S., F.G.S., etc., whose ' Bo- 

 tany of the Herald ' and numerous systematic Papers have given him an 

 eminent place among botanists, and whose ' Viti and the Vitians' has re- 

 cently established him as a popular and entertaining writer. 1 te is assisted 

 by several eminent botanists, both at home and abroad. Surely, an un- 

 dertaking that promises to be of such service to botany will meet with the 

 speedy support of all lovers of a science so extensively studied and so de- 

 servedly popular. 



We are gratified in hearing that the successful establishment of the 

 'Geologist' has been regarded as an encouragement lor the present at- 



