466 MR. C. REID ON LIMNOCARPUS. 
endocarp, and the absence of any trace of lateral pressure or 
facetting in any of the specimens examined, show that the 
carpels cannot have exceeded two. In germination the keel 
becomes detached, and is therefore missing in many specimens. 
The genus occurs in brackish-water deposits throughout the 
Oligocene strata of the Hampshire Basin. The type-specimens 
are from the Lower Headon beds of Hordle cliff, the same 
species ranging upwards into the Hamstead series. Badly 
preserved endocarps, perhaps belonging to another species of 
the genus, or to Potamogeton, occur in the Mead End beds, at 
the top of the Barton Sands. 
In 1862 Heer described * as Cyperites Forbesii some fruits 
from the Hamstead beds. His figures are not satisfactory ; 
and the types cannot be recognized in the Burdett-Coutts 
collection, now in the Museum of Practical Geology, which he 
used, though several slabs of clay full of seeds, apparently 
named by Heer Cyperites Forbesii, are there f. Heer’s reference 
of the fruits to Cyperacee, suggestion that they may be the un- 
known fruits of Cyperus reticulatus, and description, which in 
nearly every particular is unlike that of the genus Limnocarpus, 
may make it seem absurd to suggest that he has been mistaken. 
His remark, however, that they occur in * great numbers 
together in the upper three feet of the third division [of the 
Hamstead Series] of Edward Forbes" is curious, for all the 
recognizable specimens on the slabs in the Museum of Practical 
Geology belong to Limnocarpus, too badly preserved for specific 
determination, though perhaps representing only a smaller variety 
of L. headonensis. There is nothing in the collection that I can 
refer to Cyperaces, though some of the crushed and distorted 
specimens seem to resemble Heer's figures. Mr. E. T. Newton 
and I think that in all probability a mistake has been made, an 
that through describing badly preserved specimens Heer miss 
the essential characters. If such be the case, Heer's speca 
must be deleted, being so described and figured as to be Ti 
unrecognizable. Perhaps, however, the real Cyperites Forbesi 
may have found its way into some other collection, for sevé 
plants figured on the same plate cannot at present be traced. 
30 & 21. 
* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xviii. p. 373, pl. xviii. figs. Oyperites Forbesii, 
t Similar fruits have been figured by J. S. Gardner also as 
op. cit. fig. 16. 
