BEYIEWS. 
75 
In reference to the age of tlie Xew South Wales coal-fieki, Edward 
Hull stated that he had received letters from the Eer. W. B. Clarke, who 
has for many 5-ears been engaged in its exploration, and from ^Mr. John 
Mackenzie, who has had considerable experience as a mining surveyor in 
Wigan and jN^orth Wales. It is well known that I\Ir. Clarke maiLtains 
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 
Kew South Wales coal-field, and derives his information from cabinet spe- 
cimens, men of science will probabl}^ 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 ' Eecent 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 overli/ing 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, 
Sj)i)'lfer, Producia, Terehratula, etc. In a pit about 100 feet below the 
same coal, occur Spivifer, Producta, Connlana, 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 SigiUaria from the same beds. 
EEVIEWS. 
Journal of Botany. London : Hardwicke. Feb. 1863. 
It has been a matter of astonishment to us, that the science of Bo- 
tany has had no 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, altliough every way 
suited for the puljlication of members' papers, could never afibrd 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' Jias re- 
cently established him as a popular and entertaining writer. He is assisted 
by several eminent botanists, both at home and abroad. Surel}"-, 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. 
AYe are gratified in hearing that the successful establishment of the 
'Geologist' has been regarded as an encouragement for the present at- 
