Linnaean Society. 
219 
Australia belong to the marsupial genera Kangaroo, Phalanger, 
Dasyurus, wombat, &c., peculiar to the same country at the 
present day, but represented by species as big as the rhinoceros. 
A more remarkable example of the concordance of the existing 
and last extinct races of warm-blooded animals was afforded by 
the small peculiar and wingless bird ( Apteryx ) of New Zealand, 
and the extinct gigantic birds ( Dinomis ) from the superficial 
deposits of the same island. No remains of fossil quadrupeds 
have yet been found in New Zealand ; and this country possessed 
no marsupial or other species of aboriginal quadruped when dis¬ 
covered by Captain Cook. From these and similar facts, the 
Professor drew the conclusion, that the same peculiar forms of 
mammal quadrupeds and terrestrial birds were restricted to the 
same natural provinces at the later tertiary period as at the 
present day. And as a corollary, that the same general disposition 
of the larger bodies of land and sea then prevailed as at this 
time. On the other hand, in carrying back the comparison of 
recent and extinct quadrupeds to the earlier tertiary period, indi¬ 
cations were obtained of extensive changes in the relative position 
of land and sea, and, consequently, of climate; and that the 
deeper we penetrate the earth, or, in other words, the further we 
travel in time for the recovery of extinct mammals, the further we 
must travel in space to find their existing analogue. The Tapir 
of Sumatra or South America is the nearest living analogue of the 
eocene Lophiodon ;—and the marsupial insectivores of Australia 
have, of all known animals, the nearest resemblance to the fossil 
Phascolothcrium of our English oolites.— Athenaum. 
LINNiEAN SOCIETY. 
Nov. 18, 1845.—Dr. Lankester exhibited specimens of a 
Fucus sold in the London shops under the name of “ Australian 
Moss,” of which he also furnished a brief notice. On referring 
to Sir W. J. Hooker, Dr. Lankester obtained for it the name of 
F. stiriatus, Turn.; but a comparison with a specimen in the 
Linnsean Herbarium marked F. stiriatus, by Mr. Turner himself, 
and with Mr. Turner’s description in the ‘ Historia Fucorum, has 
