Mr. Cash of Halifax delivered a Y.N.U. Lecture on “The Fossil Plants of the Yorkshire Coalfield.”

The lecture was profusely illustrated by lantern slides, these being photographs of actual specimens of fossil plants. Many of them, from the famous “Halifax Hard Bed” showed the minute internal structure of the plants as well as if they were freshly cut sections.

The lecturer explained how useful these fossils were in showing the phylogeny of some of our recent plants. At the same time he warned students of the subject against the fault of naming new or supposed new species from insufficient material. Before the true relationship of these ancient plants could be made out much care was required in comparing specimine with specimine, in order to avoid the frequent error on naming a distinct species etc. what were really only different parts, or states of the same plant. He also laid stress on the importance of collecting all available fossils & keeping exact records of the horizon whence they came.