xlviii TRANSACTIONS OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
The Curator of Botany (Mr. D. D. Dobell) reported the receipt 
during the year of a second donation of specimens of plants 
from Mr. T. R. Archer Briggs, f.l.s., representative of 115 species, 
44 of which were not hitherto represented in the Athenaeum. All 
these, retaining the old labels, he has had mounted, and placed in 
order. 644 species of local plants now exist in the Institution's 
Herbarium, arranged on the Natural System, and according to the 
London Catalogue. He adds : 
" When the study of Biology shall have farther progressed in 
Plymouth a botanical garden will become a necessity, and afford 
that information about plant-life which no dead and dried plants 
can possibly yield." 
The Curator of Geology (Mr. F. J. Webb) reported : a During 
the past year the collection has received important and valuable 
additions by gifts from Lieut. Lyons, r.e. They consist of (1) a 
series of Silurian fossils from the Clinton Beds of Canada ; (2) a 
series from the Carboniferous Limestone of Ireland ; (3) a series 
of Jurassic (Middle Oolite) illustrating the Coral Eag of Faringdon ; 
(4) miscellaneous, from Upper Oolite, Cretaceous, and Woolwich 
and Beading Beds of the Eocene." 
The Curator of Petrology (Mr. B. K Worth) reported: "A 
number of additions, chiefly local, but including a few typical, 
have been made to the collection under my charge. 
" The most important is a full series of examples from a very 
ancient detrital deposit discovered by Mr. B. Burnard on the 
northern slope of Cattedown, 60 to 70 feet above datum ; and at 
a depth of from 3 to 5 feet. It consisted of pebbles and subangular 
stones — ranging from 3 J lbs. in weight to a quarter ounce or less 
— scattered through undisturbed clayey subsoil immediately over- 
lying the limestone. With a few exceptions, though these are 
important, the rocks are those still found in Devon ; but the 
peculiarity of the deposit is that the great majority of the rocks 
represented do not occur in situ in the watersheds of the Plym and 
Tavy, or of either of the rivers of South- West Devon, so that an 
enormous change in the physical conditions of the county is indi- 
cated — Carboniferous, Triassic, Liassic, and Cretaceous rocks 
formerly existing within the area having disappeared, with the 
exception of such fragmentary vestiges as those under consideration. 
