The available information regarding the fossil plants of Southern Nigeria is of the meagrest description. Consequently great interest lies in the collections of fossil plants brought back from Nigeria last year by Mr. A. E. Kitson, F.G.S., and it seems worth while to publish a brief account of what appears to be a new species of Monocotyledon from among them.

Herpetopora Anglica, the genotype of the new genus Herpetopora, described in this Magazine, was the name proposed for a new species that hitherto had been wrongly recorded as Hippothoa dispersa (Hagenow). It was then remarked that the English form did not belong to the genus Hippothoa, of which the genotype is H. divaricata; but, while Herpetopora was proposed for the English species, no suggestion was made for a genus to include Hippothoa dispersa (Hagenow) that certainly could not remain under Hippothoa. It is proposed here to describe in detail Hagenow's species, to give it a generic name, and, further, to consider some allied forms.

In 1888 the late Professor H. G. Seeley pointed out for the first time (Rep. Brit. Assoc. Adv. Sci., 1888, pp. 698–9) that Owens' order ‘Dinosauria’ should be divided into two great natural groups, especially on account of their pelvis. He called them Saurischia (=‘Theropoda’ + ‘Sauropoda’) and Ornithischia (=‘Orthopoda’). He maintained his, classification until his death in 1909, but nobody followed him. Only in 1907 did the present writer accept this classification and gave new evidences for it, but still was of opinion that these two groups only were ramifications of one natural unity, the ‘Dinosauria’. But now, for several years, the writer has come to the conclusion that the ‘Dinosauria’ are not of monophyletic origin, but have developed from different points, and should therefore be considered as two distinct natural orders. Superficial similarities have been valued too highly, such as general form and size of the body, bipedal locomotion in two large groups, certain similarities in the formation of the foot, the femur, the humerus, and the shouldergirdle.

This boring, though confined to the Kimeridge Clay, is of some interest, partly because it has proved the thickness of that clay to be much greater than it was supposed to be in this part of Wiltshire, and partly because it has yielded a species of Aporrhais or Harpagodes which has not previously been found in England.

There are three exposures of the horizon of the zone of O. pilula on the Dorset coast—at Ballard Head, Arish Mell, and Middle Bottom. Dr. Rowe's description of the Ballard Head section is so unattractive, and the section itself so inconvenient for access and study, that I put it aside to be attempted only if I had time to spare after working out the others, which has not yet happened. Of the other two, that at (or rather under) Middle Bottom is so much the better that I take it first.