During the revision of the Midlothian coalfield by the Geological Survey, special attention was directed to the plant remains occurring in the Millstone Grit, with the view of obtaining evidence bearing on the probable boundary line between the Upper and Lower Carboniferous rocks. Mr Tait collected a number of plants from certain horizons in this division of the Carboniferous system, which were submitted to Mr Kidston, F.R.S., for determination. Those from the lower part of the Millstone Grit were regarded by Mr Kidston as belonging to the Lower Carboniferous flora, and those from the upper portion, to the Upper Carboniferous flora. While carrying on his work in the field, Mr Tait found certain fossiliferous bands in the basal portion of the Millstone Grit, charged with lamellibranchs, brachiopods, and other marine organisms, and associated with Lower Carboniferous species of plants. These observations were of service in tracing the base line of the Upper Carboniferous rocks round a large part of the Midlothian basin. It ought to be clearly understood, however, that this boundary line is based solely on the evidence supplied by the plants and fishes as determined by Mr Kidston and Dr Traquair respectively.

Among the interesting specimens which have been yielded by the material of Calciferous Sandstone age (Culm), from Pettycur, near Burntisland, are a petiole of Dineuron and a very small species of Botryopteris. The former genus does not appear to have been previously discovered in Britain, and the present species is, as far as I am aware, only represented by a single example. The Botryopteris, in the form of fragments of petioles, is not infrequent, but its stems are of much more rare occurrence.

The Anatomical Museum of the University of Edinburgh contains a valuable collection of the skulls of the aborigines of Tasmania, which has not as yet been described. As the skulls of this now extinct people are limited in number in museums, and as the opportunity of collecting additional specimens no longer exists, I have thought that an account of their characters, a detailed statement of their measurements on lines similar to those pursued in my previous craniological memoirs, and a comparison of their conformation with that of the Tasmanian skulls in other collections, as described by previous writers, would be of interest to anthropologists, and might assist in the preparation of a summary of their most constant features. Consideration of the affinities and possible descent of the Tasmanians may also be appropriately included in the Memoir.

La Scotia a rapporté de son expédition au pôle sud une très importante collection d'Holothuries; nous remercions bien vivement M. W. S. Bruce de l'honueur qu'il nous a fait en nous en confiant l'étude.

Cette collection ne renferme pas moins de trente-quatre espèces, dont vingt et une, c'est à dire près des deux tiers, sont nouvelles. Cette proportion aurait été probablement plus grande, mais par suite de l'action de quelques agents conservateurs employés (formaldéhyde et acide acétique glacial) certains échantillons sont indéterminables: leurs corpuscules calcaires ayant été complètement dissous par les liquides acides. Pour la même raison nous avons décrit quelques nouvelles espèces sans pouvoir fournir daus la diagnose les caractères de leurs spicules. Mais la majeure partie des exemplaires et surtout ceux de grandes profondeurs sont en bon état et très bien préparés.