MR. J. STARKIE GABDNER OliT SOME FOSSIL LEAVES. 219 



Remarks on some Fossil Leaves frpm the Isle of Mull (Seotlaml). 



By J. SxAREiE Gar^^eb, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



[Eead 2l8t January, 1886.] 



The series of plants is not very extensive, but many of the speci- 

 mens are in remarkable preservation, and being in a hard matrix 

 are quite beyond the risk of injury. 



The flora comprises but one Fern, and that is indistinguishable 

 from the living Onoclea sensihilis of Western America and Eastern 

 Asia. It is represented by both fertile and barren fronds, and 

 though very limited in range, is extraordinarily abundant in in- 

 dividuals. With it is an JEquisetum ; but the most careful search 

 failed to bring any other Cryptogamous plants to light. 



The Coniferae are better represented. A Ginkgo is indi- 

 stinguishable from the existing species, and is more abundant and 

 luxuriant in this locality than in any other. In those remote 

 times it seems to have formed a circumpolar belt such as Firs and 

 Larches do at the present day, and must have been well-nigh 

 universal in northern regions. Geological changes, such as 

 the intrusion of sea and desert, changes of climate, and the 

 competition of stronger forms, have been peculiarly fatal to it. 

 The type of Podocarjpus represented at Mull has a wider dis- 

 tribution at the present day. The Taxus was formerly supposed 

 to be a 8equoia^ but it does not agree in any of its minuter 

 characters with the surviving Eedwood, the foliage of which also 

 breaks up in quite a different way. There are, moreover, no 

 Seg^uoia-cone?^ associated with it ; but it does, on the other hand, 

 agree in every respect with an existing Tew of Japan. The 

 determination of the Cryptomeria rests on its identity with a 

 species found in the somewhat newer beds of Antrim, wdth 

 which Crj/ptomeria-cones are abundantly associated. All these 

 I have described in the volume of the Palseontographical Society 

 which is on the eve of publication. 



Monocotyledons are only represented by one sword-shaped 

 leaf with rectangular netted venation. 



I have not yet made any attempt to determine the Dicotyledons, 

 except by comparing them with other fossils. 



Three very well known Arctic Tertiary species are the most 

 abundant, and these have been named Platanus, Corj/his, and 

 Grewia. For the present I can only regard them as of geo- 



