i6i 



NOTES AND COMMENTS. 



SPEETON AND SOUTH AFRICA. 



We have recently received Vol. VII., Part 2 of the Annals 

 of the South African Museum, which is devoted to ' Descrip- 

 tions of the Palaeontological Material collected by the Members 

 of the Geological Survey of Cape Colony and others,' and con- 

 tains an elaborate paper on ' The Invertebrate Fauna and 

 Palaeontological Relations of the Uitenhage Series,' by Dr. F. 

 L. Kitchin.* On glancing at the plates at the end of the volume, 

 the striking resemblance with the fossils of the Speeton series is 

 at once observed. Dr. Kitchin, in his remarkably full and 

 critical review of the various memoirs dealing with the Uiten- 

 hage series, rejects the theories of the Liassic and Jurassic 

 age of the beds, and brings forward very good evidence to shew 

 that they are of Lower Cretaceous age, justly advocating 

 that the evidence of .the Cephalopoda must carry the greatest 

 weight in arriving at a decision. The author then discusses 

 the evidence afforded by each individual species, and unques- 

 tionably makes out a very good case. He is also very much 

 up-to-date with regard to the literature of the subject, and has 

 even drawn upon specimens from Yorkshire museums and pri- 

 vate collections in working up his case. In this connection it is 

 remarkable to find, for instance, that Holcostephanus atherstoni 

 of Sharpe, from South Africa, is practically identical with the 

 Olcostephanus (Astieria) asteria described by Mr. C. G. Danford 

 in the Yorkshire Geological Society's Proceedings for 1906, 

 (publ. 1907). To find this extraordinary similarity between 

 specimens occurring in so widely divided districts as Yorkshire 

 and South Africa is certainly surprising. In conclusion, we 

 should like to take this opportunity of congratulating Dr. 

 Kitchin upon the thoroughness with which he has prepared 

 this important contribution to palaeontology. 



AFRICAN FUNGI. 



Mr. W. N. Cheesman, F.L.S., of Selby, who joined the 

 British Association at South Africa in 1905, made an extensive 

 collection of fungi. This included no fewer than twenty-fi\ e 

 new to the flora of Africa, one being new to science. In the 

 Linnean Society's Journal for February 1909, Mr. Cheesman 

 describes these finds, and in the same publication Mr. Thomas 

 Gibbs gives a Note on the Coprophilous fungi, in which he 

 describes the new species under the name of Coprinus cheesmam. 



* West, Newman & Co., London, pp. 12-250, plates, price 12/6. 

 1909 May I. 



L 



