Redpath Museum, and in notes on the Post-pliocene of Canada, the gap between the Modern and the Glacial age was completely filled up in so far as Canadian marine species are concerned. The net result was, as I have elsewhere stated, that no change other than varietal had occurred. In studying the fossil plants of the Carboniferous, so abundant in the fine exposures of the coal formation in Nova Scotia, two defects struck me painfully. One was the fragmentary and imperfect state of the specimens procurable. Another was the question, What preceded these plants in the older rocks? The first of these was to be met only by thorough exploration. When a fragment of a plant was disclosed it was necessary to inquire if more existed in the same bed, and to dig, or blast away or break up the rock, until some remaining portions were disclosed. In this way it has been possible to obtain entire specimens of many trees of the Carboniferous; and to such an extent has the laborious and somewhat costly process been effectual, that more species of carboniferous trees are probably known in their entire forms from the Coal formations of Nova Scotia than from any other part of the world. I have been amused to find that so little are experiences of this kind known to some of my _confrères_ abroad, that they are disposed to look with scepticism on the information obtained by this laborious but certain process, and to suppose that they are being presented with imaginary "restorations." I think it right here to copy a remark of a German botanist, who has felt himself called to criticise my work: "Dawson's description of the genus (_Psilophyton_) rests chiefly on the impression made on him in his repeated researches," etc. "He puts us off with an account of the general idea which he has drawn from the study of them." This is the remark of a closet naturalist, with reference to the kind of work above referred to, which, of course, cannot be represented in its entirety in figures or hand specimens.[16] [16] Solms-Laubach, "Fossil Botany." A pretentious book, which should not have been translated into English without thorough revision and correction.