510 Proceedings. 
papilla on one side of each, obtained from the flank of the range of hills 
on the west side of the Launceston road at Bagdad, upon Hayes’ farm. 
From Mr. Thomas Browne, of Macquarie-street, one East Indian 
Copper Coin. - 
From the Rey. Edward Freeman, of Brown’s River, a specimen of 
Drift Wood cast up on the sea-beach there, upon which were fixed a con- 
geries of conical ova-cells of a,shell-fish—probably a Muréx or Fasciolaria, 
On examination, the yolky contents of the cells were found more or less 
inspissated, without having made any advance towards organization. 
From His Excellency Sir W. T. Denison, a packet containing 19 species 
of seeds from China for the Gardens. 
From Francis Smith, Esq., Solicitor-General, a packet containing 120 
species of Indian seeds for the Gardens. 
A case containing 39 plants has been forwarded to Mr. Blackett at Auck- 
land, for which a case of New Zealand plants is expected in return. 
Sir W. Denison remarked in reference to the fragment of transmuted 
sandstone submitted, that specimens similarly altered had been brought by 
him from the neighbourhood of Hamilton, and he believed that it would 
in general be found that sedimentary strata in close proximity to eruptive 
rocks have been similarly transmuted. The Secretary observed that such 
is the case to a certain extent at Richmond, where a basaltic dyke has 
burst through and dislocated the coal strata, crossing the Coal River 
near Mr, Butcher’s house; that it is not the case at Jerusalem, where a 
similar dyke intersects and displaces the coal and associated beds, 
without affecting their horizontality, at a distance not more than fifty 
yards from the adit level, whence coal was formerly worked out by 
the Government; and that no very obvious alteration of structure 
has taken place on the side of Ben Lomond, where the coal 
sandstones and shales have been elevated to a height of three thousand 
feet above the sea, and still rest on the igneous rocks in a nearly hori- 
zontal position, with their edges but slightly turned up, where they are in 
contact: the converse being the case at the South Cape coal-field, where 
contact with an erupted dyke has converted the shales into a striped, flinty- 
looking rock. Mr. W. Archer questioned the fact of the sandstones and 
coal on the side of Ben Lomond having been elevated to their present posi- 
tion, and ventured to think it possible that the sedimentary beds may have 
been deposited upon and against pre-existing igneous rocks, and that the 
edges, being upturned at the point of contact, may be wholly due to natural 
subsidence of the mass of the deposited matter. The Secretary supported 
his argument by stating that similar carboniferous rocks at the Schouten — 
Island and at the Douglas River dip under the greenstone. His Excellency 
Corroborated this, aud said that at Schouten Island the edges of the coal 
beds had been found to abut against and to repose upon the granite, alto- - 
gether unaltered in character and position, except that they are found to 
thin off near the junction. A conversation followed as to the age of the red 
Sandstone, forming so marked a geological feature in the north-west, 
