is the type of these Amphicalian species. They have been grouped under the following generic heads :-Teleosaurus, Mystriosaurus, Macrospondylus, Massospondylus, Pelagosaurus, Aeolodon, Suchosaurus, Goniopholis, Poecilopleuron, Stagonolepis (?), &c.* Species of the above genera range from the lias to the chalk inclusive.

Sub-Order Opisthocalia (omodos, behind; zonos, hollow; vertebræ concave behind, convex in front).—The small group of crocodilia, so called, is an artificial one, based upon more or less of the anterior trunk vertebræ, being united by ball-and-socket joints, but having the ball in front, instead of, as in modern crocodiles, behind. Cuvier first pointed out this peculiarity† in a crocodilian from the Oxfordian beds at Harfleur and the Kimmeridgian at Havre. Professor Owen had described similar Opisthocœlian vertebræ from the great oolite at Chipping Norton, from the upper lias of Whitby, and, but of much larger size, from the Wealden formations of Sussex and the Isle of Wight. These specimens probably belonged, as suggested by him in 1841, to the fore-part of the same vertebral column as the vertebræ, flat at the fore-part, and slightly hollow behind, on which he founded the genus Cetiosaurus. The smaller Opisthocoelian vertebræ described by Cuvier have been referred by Von Meyer to a genus called Streptospondylus. In one species, from the Wealden, dorsal vertebræ, measuring 8 inches across, are only 4 inches in length, and caudal vertebræ nearly 7 inches across are less than 4 inches in length. These characterise the species called Cetiosaurus brevis. Caudal vertebræ, measuring 7 inches deep and 5 inches in length, from the lower oolite at Chipping Norton, and the great oolite at Enstone, represent the species called Cetiosaurus medius. Caudal vertebræ from the Portland stone at Garsington, Oxfordshire, measuring 7 inches 9 lines across, and 7 inches in length, were referred by the author to the Cetiosaurus longus. The latter, he remarked, must have been the most gigantic of crocodilians.

Sub-Order. Procalia (zgos, front; zonos, hollow; vertebræ with the cup at the fore-part and the ball behind). Crocodilians with cup-and-ball vertebræ, like those of living species, first make their appearance in the greensand of N. America (Crocodilus basifissus and C. basitruncatus, Ow.)? In Europe, their remains are first found in the tertiary strata. Such remains from the plastic clay of Meudon have been referred to Crocodilus isorhynchus, C. calorhyncus, C. Becquereli. In the "Calcaire Grossier" of Argenton and Castelnaudry have been found the C. Rallinati, and C. Dodanii. In the coeval eocene London clay, at Sheppy Island, the entire skull and characteristic parts of the skeleton of C. toliapicus and C. champsoides occur. In the somewhat later eocene beds at Bracklesham occur the remains of the Gavial-like C. Dixoni. In the Hordle beds have been found

*This was referred to the present order, by the author, after inspection of the specimens brought to the British Association Meeting at Leeds, by Sir R. Murchison, but with a note on the greater relative breadth of the coracoid, as shown by the part of the bone then exposed.-(Encyclo. Brit., Art. "Palæontology.") Prof. Huxley, to whom the specimens were subsequently consigned for description, together with others directly transmitted to him, confirms the general crocodilian character of Stagonolepis. I regard the modifications of the limb-bones as indications of affinity with the Thecodontia; but the structure of the cranium must be ascertained to determine this point. The associated fossils, especially those allied to Rynchosaurus, in the Elgin sandstones, have a triassic character.

† Annales du Muséum, tom. xii. p. 83, pl. x., xi.

p. 96.

Report on British Fossil Reptiles, Trans. British Association for 1841,

Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.

the C. Hastingsic, with short and broad jaws; and also a true alligator (C. Hantoniensis). It is remarkable that forms of procœlian Crocodilia, now geographically restricted, the gavial to Asia, and the alligator to America, should have been associated with true crocodiles, and represented by species which lived, during nearly the same geological period, in rivers flowing over what now forms the south coast of England. Many species of procœlian Crocodilia have been founded on fossils from miocene and pliocene tertiaries. One of these, of the gavial sub-genus (C. Crassidens), from the Sewalik tertiary, was of gigantic dimensions.

Order X. LACERTILIA.- -Vertebræ, in most, procœlian, with a single transverse process on each side, and with single-headed ribs; sacral vertebræ, not exceeding two. Small vertebræ of this type have been found in the Wealden of Sussex. They are more abundant, and are associated with other and more characteristic parts of the species in the cretaceous strata. On such evidence have been based the Rhaphiosaurus subulidens, the Coniasaurus crassidens, and the Dolichosaurus longicollis. But the most remarkable and extreme modification of the lacertian type, in the cretaceous period, is that manifested by the huge species, of which a cranium, five feet long, was discovered in the upper chalk of St Peter's Mount, near Maestricht, in 1780. This species, under the name Mosasaurus, is well known by the descriptions of Cuvier. Allied species have been found in the cretaceous strata of England and North America. The Leiodon anceps of the Norfolk chalk was a nearly allied marine Lacertian. The structure of the limbs is not yet well understood; it may lead to a subordinal separation of the Mosasauroids from the land-lizards, most of which are represented by existing species, in which a close transition is manifested to the next order.

Order XI. OPHIDIA.-Vertebræ very numerous, procœlian, with a single transverse process on each side; no sacrum; no visible limbs. The earliest evidence, at present, of this order is given by the fossil vertebræ of the large serpent (Palæophis, Ow.) from the London clay of Sheppy and Bracklesham. Remains of a poisonous serpent, apparently a Vipera, have been found in miocene deposits at Sansans, south of France. Ophidiolites, from Eningen, have been referred to the genus Coluber.

Order XII. CHELONIA.-The characters of this order, including the extremely and peculiarly modified forms of tortoises, terrapenes, and turtles, are sufficiently well known. The chief modifications in oolitic Chelonia known to Professor Owen were the additional pair of bones, interposed between the hyosternals and the hyposternals of the plastron, in the genus Pleurosternon from the upper oolite at Purbeck. It would be very hazardous to infer the existence of reptiles, with the characteristic structure of the restricted genus Testudo, from the footprints in the triassic sandstone of Dumfriess-shire. But Professor Owen concurred in the general conclusions based upon the admirable figures and descriptions in the splendid monograph by Sir William Jardine, Bart., F.R.S., that some of those footprints most probably belonged to species of the Chelonian order. An enormous species of true turtle (Chelone gigas), the skull of which measured one foot across the back part, had left its remains in the eocene clay at Sheppy. The terrestrial type of the order had been exemplified on a still more gigantic scale by the Colossochelys of the Sewalik tertiaries.

Order XIII. BATRACHIA.-Vertebræ biconcave (Siren), procœlian (Rana), or opisthocœlian (Pipa); pleurapophyses short, straight. Two occipital condyles and two vomerine bones, in most dentigerous; no scales or scutes. Larvæ with gills, in most deciduous. Representatives of existing families or genera of true Batrachia have been found fossil, chiefly in tertiary and post-tertiary strata. Indications of a perennibranchiate

batrachian had recently been detected by Professor Owen, in a collection of minute Purbeck fossils. Anourous genera (Palæophrynus), allied to the toad, occurred in the Eningen tertiaries, and here also the remains of the gigantic Salamander (Andrias Schenchyeri) were discovered.

Professor HUXLEY thought this communication a most important contribution to science. He quite agreed with Professor Owen in placing together the Amphibia and fishes, as no real distinction could be drawn between them. It was, however, different with the true Reptiles and Amphibia, although Professor Owen was not disposed to attach importance to these distinctions. The Amphibia possessed no allantois and had gills, points of structure which separated them strongly from the true Reptiles. Amongst extinct animals none presented any transitional forms.-Professor OWEN defended his own position on the ground that such an interpretation could be given to the allantois on the one side and the gills on the other, as to render the distinctions less obvious than at first sight appeared.

On the Identity of Morrhua vulgaris (the common Cod) and Morrhua punctata (the speckled Cod), hitherto described as distinct species. By Dr DYCE.-The author of this paper showed that the distinction between these fishes consisted mainly in a diseased condition of the bones. This peculiarity existed in haddocks and other fishes. This condition of the bones consisted in an absorption of the centrum of the vertebræ, and resembled in its effects the disease called rickets in the human being.

On the Distribution of British Butterflies. By Mr H. T. STAINTON.-Among the insect tribes, the "scale-wings" or order Lepidoptera, has always attracted a considerable amount of attention. The variety and beauty of the butterfly tribe is a matter of notoriety. The order Lepidoptera includes two great divisions, butterflies and moths,-the former group all fly by day, whereas most of the moths are nocturnal in their habits. It has been calculated that there are not less than 50,000 different species of Lepidoptera on the globe. More than 3000 species of butterflies are already known, and it has been computed that the moths are sixteen times as numerous. In this country the proportion of moths is much greater, being nearly 30 to 1, but then we are remarkable throughout Europe for our poverty in butterflies. As already observed, in the whole world 3000 species of butterflies are already known; of these only one-tenth occur in Europe, the tropical parts of Asia and America being by far the most numerously populated with this beautiful tribe of insects. In central Europe or Germany, 186 species of butterflies have been observed, the remaining 120 European species being peculiar to

Spain, Italy, Greece, Russia, or Lapland. Of the German species 94 occur in Belgium, but only 65 in England, though we possess one species, Erebia cassiope, which does not occur in Belgium. All the British butterflies occur in England, but little more than half (only 33) are found in Scotland, and scarcely more in Ireland. Twenty-five species may be considered as generally distributed and common; but it should not be understood that these are everywhere to be met with, but simply that their geographical range is not limited, and that where they find suitable localities we may expect to meet with them from Norfolk to Killarney, and from the Isle of Wight to Caithness,-some frequent gardens, some meadows, some heaths, some woods, and some hedgerows and lanes. Twenty-five other species, which all occur in the south-east of England, thin out as we advance northwards and westwards,—only five of them occurring in Scotland, only fourteen in Ireland. Three species, two of which are common in the mountainous parts of Scotland, do not occur at all in the south of England. Seven species are local to particular limited districts in the midland counties or the south of England. Three species of rare occurrence in this country must be looked upon as stragglers from the Continent; one of them, Vanessa antiopa, has occurred in the south-west of Scotland, at Dunbar, and at Jardine Hall, Dumfriesshire. Two other species, which formerly occurred in restricted English localities, now appear to be extinct there.

On the Employment of the Electrical Eel (Gymnotus electricus) by the Natives of Surinam. By Professor G. WILSON.-After alluding to the paper he had read at the last meeting of the Association, on the electrical Malapterurus from Old Calabar, the author gave an account of the employment of the Gymnotus in Surinam as a medicinal agent. He had obtained his information from a gentleman who had expressed his willingness to forward to England living specimens of this electrical fish for experiment.

On the Zoophytes of Caithness. By Mr C. W. PEACH.-He commenced by extolling the utility of local catalogues of natural history, and stated that he was desirous of showing how rich the Scottish shores are in these lovely gems, in order that he might induce many to draw up these beauties from ocean's caves. He then mentioned Mr J. Macgillivray's list, the result of about three weeks' examination on the Aberdeen coast, as the only Scottish one we had-it contained 64 species; and then proceeded to compare his own with those of Couch's for Cornwall, and Alder's for Durham and Northumberland-the former contains 124 species, the latter 164; thus giving a preponderance of 40 species to Alder's. He enumerated in his own list 150 species, and thus a balance of 14 only is left against Caithness, &c. He believed this will soon be reduced when greater attention has been paid to the fresh-water ones, and the more obscure forms, and when the dredge has been used; for hitherto all had been collected between tide-marks, and from the refuse of the fishermen's lines, and all (with the exception of Plumularia myriophyllum, at Peterhead, by the Rev. Mr Yevill) by himself and sons: the greatest number of southern forms being found at Wick. A few forms found at Peterhead are wanting at Wick, and vice versa.

On the Characteristic Features of the Aberdeenshire Flora. By Dr. DICKIE. Remarks on the physical characters of Aberdeenshire form a necessary introduction to an account of its Flora. The county of Aberdeen occupies a position between 56° 52′ and 57° 42′ N., and 1° 49′' to 3 48' W. long.; it embraces a surface of 1950 English square miles. A line drawn from Culter, on the borders of Kincardineshire, to Pennan, on the borders of Banffshire, divides it into two portions, presenting very great difference in physical characters. To the east of this line the sur

face, though undulating, does not present any point exceeding 900 feet in elevation, and no part of this section is more than twenty miles distant from the German Ocean. The more inland part, to the west of the line above mentioned, has in general a very different aspect, there being a gradual rise of the surface towards the south-western extremity of the county. This is very obvious on tracing the levels of the two principal rivers the Dee and the Don. The former has an elevation of 1640 feet at a distance of seventy miles from the sea; the Don, about fifty-five miles inland, is 1240 feet above the sea. The river Muick, in a course of ten miles only, from its source at Loch Muick to its conjunction with the Dee at Ballater, presents a difference of level amounting to more than 500 feet. These facts are singularly in contrast with observations made on the course of the river Ythan, which drains part of the more eastern district at twenty-two miles from its termination in the German Ocean, it is only 124 feet above the level of that sea. Some of the passes from one glen to another illustrate the same point: the highest level of the path on the east shoulder of Mount Battock, twenty-eight miles from Aberdeen, is about 2000 feet, while that on the west shoulder of Mount Keen, ten miles further inland, attains an elevation of 2400 feet. Again, if we take a general view of the heights of the mountains in sections of ten miles from east to west, we observe a steady increase of elevation, till we reach a zone in which few of the numerous mountains are lower than 2000 or 3000 feet, and many exceed 4000, the extreme elevation being that of Ben Muich Dhui, viz., about 4320 feet, and therefore, in Britain, second only to Ben Nevis. Omitting here other details respecting the shore-line, prevailing rocks and soil, temperature, rain, &c., the following is a summary of conclusions respecting the vegetation. Excluding upwards of forty species, many of which, though now extensively diffused, have doubtless been introduced at a comparatively recent period, the indigenous flowering plants amount to 635, consisting of 458 Dicotyledons and 177 Monocotyledons; these are distributed among 53 natural orders of the former and 11 of the latter. The Flora, therefore, is not rich as regards mere numbers; nevertheless it comprehends many species of great interest.

On a new Genus of Lucernariadæ. By Professor ALLMAN. This creature was a kind of fixed Medusa, having a structure resembling many of the common forms of floating Jelly Fishes, but was fixed to rocks by means of a pedicle or stalk. It had been found on the more northern shores of Scotland, and he proposed for it the name of Carduella Scotica.

On Drift Pebbles found in the Stomach of a Cow. By the Rev. W. S. SYMONDS. Mr Symonds exhibited thirty pebbles, one of them weighing three-quarters of a pound, found in the stomach of a cow lately killed at Barton-under-Needwood, Burton-on-Trent. The pebbles belong to the northern drift of geologists, which abundantly overlies the new red sandstone of the district; and they are remarkably glazed and polished by the action of the cow's stomach. The weight of the pebbles is five pounds, and the animal appeared perfectly healthy and fat when killed by Mr Goodman, butcher, of Barton-under-Needwood, to whom reference may be made.

Short Account of a Bone Cave, near Montrose. By Mr Beattie.— The cave is situate near the mouth of the River Northesk, in that range of trap-rocks extending eastward from the Northwater Bridge, on the Aberdeen Road, to the cliffs of St Cyrus,--the base of the cave being at present ten or twelve feet above the level of the sea, from which it is distant nearly a mile, and from the nearest point of the River Northesk about half as much. The entrance to the cave is through a hard compact rock of trap, and measures twelve feet wide, by five high. On entering, the