27 
Ordinary Meeting, November 12th, 1867. 
Edward Schunck, Ph.D., F.R.S., &c., President, in the 
Chair. 
Mr. John Barrow was elected an Ordinary Member of the 
Society. 
Mr. Binney, F.B.S., F.G.S., said that in the Rev. J. G. 
Cummings excellent History of the Isle of Man that author, 
at page 132, says, “ the different layers of the Posidonian 
Schist vary both in their lithological texture and organic 
contents. The finest and most compact layer, which is 
worked for ornamental purposes, is characterised by an 
abundance of Posidonia and the relicts of tree ferns, 
which we must necessarily regard with interest as indi- 
cating an approach, though still at a considerable distance 
from the coal formation of Great Britain.” As the disco- 
very of fossil tree ferns in the mountain limestone would be 
of great interest, he had lately been over to Poolvash Bay, 
the locality named by Mr. Gumming, and spent a consider- 
able time in searching the black limestones there for those 
fossils; but although he met with plants, the remains of 
vegetables common to the carboniferous formation, such as 
Stigmaria ficoides, Catamites, and other coal plants, he 
found nothing resembling tree ferns. The state in which the 
roots (Stigmarice) were found in this limestone led him to 
believe that Mr. Cumming had mistaken them for tree ferns. 
The depressed areolse in this fossil have the lower portion 
of the radicle attached to them so as to give the appearance 
of a scar not much unlike that of a tree fern, but he con- 
vinced himself that they were unquestionably Stigmaria. 
Proceedings — Lit. & Phil. Society— Yol. VII. — No. 3. — Session, 1867-8, 
