Page:Journal of botany, British and foreign, Volume 9 (1871).djvu/130

 114 REVIEAV OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO FOSSIL BOTANY.

(liius arctnsis, var. vestltns, Reiclib. (Cirsiiitii vestitum, Wimm.), which is the variety setosus with the leaves clothed underneath with dense white hairs, and Ceutaurea Jucea, L. This last was very abundant, and I noticed several forms which seem to be those figured and described by Eeichenbach as lacera, ciicidUgei'a, and crispo-fimhriata. According to Synie (Eng. Bot., v. 31), the plant found at Acton was C. amara, De Cand., which is quite different. This I have not noticed about London. To these may also be added Sida spicijlora, De Cand., noticed in 18(36, and Malva verticillata (in Gard. Chron., October 9, 1869, p. 1U67). — W. T. Thiselton Dyer.

Botany. — When did the word "Botany" come to have its present signification? — VV. T. Thiselton Dyer.

��leports*

��REVIEW OF THE CONTRIBUTIONS TO FOSSIL BOTANY PUBLISHED IN BRITAIN IN 1870.

By William Carruthers, F.L.S.

Carruthers, W. On Fossil Cycadean Stems from the Secondary Rocks

of Britain. Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxvi. pp. 675-708, pi. liv-lxiii. After investigating the nature of the Palaeozoic remains referred to CycadecB, the author describes twenty-five species belonging to eiglit genera. Four of the genera are placed in one or otiier of the tribes of the existing Cycads, while two new tribes are established for the remain- ing genera. On the Petrified Forest near Cairo. Geol. Mag. vol. vii,

pp. 306-310, pi. xiv. The so-called forest is described, and the different specimens of silicified woods found in it are referred to two species of the genus Nicolia.

————On the Structure of a Fern-stem from the Lower Eocene of Herne Bay, and on its Allies, Recent and Fossil. Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. pp. 349–353.

The stem {Osmundites DowJ,-eri) is minutely described, ami compared

with that of Osmnnda rer/alis, L. A new arrangement of some described

Fern-stems from Palaeozoic and Mesozoic rocks is proposed by the author.

Daayson, J. W. On the Pre-carboniferous Floras of North-eastern

America, with especial reference to that of the Eriau (Devonian)

Period. Abstract. ' Proceedings of Royal Society,' May 5, 1870, The Erian Flora is revised, and twenty-three new species added. Large trunks of Protutaxites are described, and also two species of Pulopliyton, with details of their form, structure, and fructification. The occurrence of LepidojjJdolos and Calamodendrou, noticed for the first time in the Middle Devonian ; specimens of Cyclod'ujma and Cardiocarpwriy and a new genus, Ormoxylon, are described. • On the Graphite of the Laurentian Rocks of Canada.

Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxvi. pp. 113-117. The author estimates that the quantity of carbon in the Laurentian is

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