The specimens described in the following pages were submitted to me for examination by Mr. F. R. Parrington, who obtained them “from the hard fine-grained flags in the bed of the Msimbasi River between the junction of a tributary called the Katkindu and the site where reptile remains (? Tangasaurus menneli) were collected about half a mile above the junction, approximately 4° 55′ S. lat.; 38° 57′ long.” (Sketch-map, I.) Though the material is for the most part fragmentary, it is a welcome addition to the palaeobotanical records from tropical Africa. The plants are from the region where Dr. E. O. Teale made a collection, which was described twelve years ago. Specimens from the same district and from beds of the same geological age had previously been described by Potonie. Teale assigned the plant-beds to the middle division of the Tanga series of the Karroo system and Potonié regarded the beds at his “Fundort V”, which corresponds to Mr. Parrington’s locality (sketch-map, I) as Rhaetic-Jura (?). My conclusion was that the plants indicated a Triassic or Rhaetic age. The additional fossils which Mr. Parrington kindly handed to me, though they cannot be said definitely to settle the age of the beds, indicate an Upper Triassic horizon.

For a long period it was customary to base Echinoid classifi-cation exclusively on the characters of the test alone. It was not until the beginning of this century that other characters were also taken into consideration, starting with my work on the “Ingolf” Echinoidea I, 1903, in which I pointed out that characters of great classificatory value were found also in the structure of the pedicellariae and spicules. Through using these characters it was found that the numerous forms of Regular Echinoids, referred on account of the great uniformity of their test-characters to some few large “genera”, e.g. Echinus, Strongylocentrotus, Cidaris, in reality belonged to a number of various generic types, even to different families. In the following year, 1904, in my “Siam” Echinoidea, I pointed out that also the structure of the teeth was of primary classificatory importance, this being further worked out by Jackson, 1912, in his Phytogeny of the Echini, where the characters of the whole dental apparatus were found to afford characters of the greatest importance, and where the excellent names Aulodonta, Stirodonta, and Camarodonta were coined, names which will have to be adopted in Echinoid classification.

In a preliminary article (1) dealing with the British Quaternary strand-line oscillations it was shown that unexpected correlations had emerged as a result of the methods employed. Of the possible assumptions the only one to prove workable was that there had been, during Quaternary time, a temporary lowering of ocean level of 1,000 metres or more. The graphs left no reasonable doubt that if the ocean level had moved in the way assumed the Mindel-Kiss interval of Penck's Alpine sequence must be equated with the major glaciation of North-West Europe and the British Isles. In order to test this, the only assumption made, it was applied to the coral reef problem (2) and there it was successful in offering what should be an acceptable solution. It was surprising to find that Darwin had actually used an apparent rise of ocean level, of the same order of magnitude, to illustrate his own theory of subsiding islands. The success of the postulate when faced with the coral reef problem was held to have invested it with a high degree of probability. It was pointed out, however, that changes in ocean level of that magnitude could best be explained by the sinking of the ocean floor, and the North Pacific Ocean was indicated as the probable position. The cause of the changes of ocean level will now be investigated and then its consequences discussed in the light of ascertained facts.

The epidiorite with which this note is concerned is exposed in a small overgrown quarry 50 yards north of St. Catherine’s old Chapel, Loch Fyne. The rock is soft and is easy to cut, and it is said that some was used in the building of Inveraray Castle.