290 
THE GEOLOGIST. 
large work on the Fossil Plants of the Oolitic Rocks (" Flora fossilis Formationis 
Oolithicse"), two parts of which have been publislied, 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 
Africa respectively are entitled to in the geological scale. As tlie apparent weight 
of evidence places some of these deposits in other formations than the Jurassic, 
and as some are still very doubtfully placed, the author omits them from his 
sources of Jurassic plants. 
In the two parts of his work which he has presented to the Society, the author 
descril es the Jurassic Calamites (including the AsteroplnjUitcs), the PhyllotlieccB, 
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 Yorkshire for specimens of 
Packypteris with pinnules having a single midrib. Sig. de Zigno supports Stem- 
berg and Bronn in the suggestion that under the term Eguisetites columnaris 
authors have confounded two distinct forms ; one from Brora and Yorkshire, w ith 
thick joints, and illustrated by Kfinig ; 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 Jurassic 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 sejiarated for microscopical examination. The 
Cycadece have more species ; and the Coniferce (especially the Braclujphylla) ai'e 
numerous. 
3. " On a Group of supposed Reptilian Eggs (Oolithes BatJwnicce) from the Great 
Oolite of Cirencester." By Professor J. Buckman, F.G.S. 
The specimen referred to was obtained by Mr. Dalton from the Harebushes 
quarry near Cirencester, 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 dilfering from birds' 
eggs, the author thinks that they must have been the eggs of a reptile. The egg- 
shells were veiy 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 
Phillii)s, Pres. G.S. 
In tliis conmumication 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 variatile argillaceous beds above (capped by the Corn- 
brash), has been entirely referred to the Great Oolite formation by the Geological 
Survey, 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 tliis series is continued 
by the Oolite of Brough and Cave, and is recognised again in the Millepore-rock 
at the base of the Gristhorpe ClilTs. Hence it appeai-s 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 contam 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 IHth, 1859. — 1. " Palichthyologic 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 wdth some remarks on the in many respects unsatisfactory 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 Pierichthys for the " winged fish" discovered at Cromartie 
