THE COUNCIL. 
7 
shew the continuous similarity of this portion of the ancient 
Flora. 
In Fossil Botany also, the transparent sections ^ which 
have been no less beautifully executed than ingeniously 
devised, to illustrate such analogies or differences as can 
be perceived in the structure of primeval and existing 
vegetation, are well worthy the attention of the Meeting. 
And in the comparative anatomy of fossils, a valuable 
accession has accrued to the display of an extinct race 
of animals by whom the earth was inhabited at some remote 
and as yet undetermined era, in the head and horns of the 
gigantic Irish Elk.^ 
The Council, in concluding their remarks upon the 
geological contributions, cannot pass over in silence the last 
donation to this Museum from one who had in it a paternal 
interest.— Mr. Thorpe was among the first three founders of 
the original collection; he was one of those whose liberal 
spirit planted the germ which has since produced such 
abundant fruit in the now extensive geological treasures of 
this Society; and his name deserves to stand upon its records 
as that of a man who, when the interest of the extraordinary 
discoveries at Kirkdale was at its height, in giving his own 
collection of those rare remains, saw and embraced the proper 
moment for effecting by a personal sacrifice an important 
public object. 
Presented by H. Witham, Esq. with his work explanatory of the subject. 
^ Presented by F. H. Fawkes, Esq. 
