MR. J. S. GARDNER ON ALNUS RIOHARDSONI. 417 
Alnus Richardsoni (Petrophiloides, Bowerbank), a Fossil Fruit 
from the London Clay of Herne Bay. By J. STARKIE 
Garpyer, F.G.S. (Communicated by E. T. Ganrpner, 
F.L.S.) 
[Read November 1, 1883.] 
(Prate XXXI.) 
THE subject will scarcely, I fear, appear of sufficient importance 
to justify the presentation of a separate paper upon it; but the 
species has been described by Bowerbank, examined and written 
upon by Mr. Carruthers, Baron von Ettingshausen, and criticised 
by nearly every author who has written upon the fossil plants of 
the Tertiary formation. I feel some diffidence, therefore, in pro- 
posing to remove it to a totally different family from that in which 
so many authorities have concurred to place it; and the more 
so, as I believe that I am thereby removing the only fruit yet 
ascribed to the Proteacesx from our British Eocenes, although so 
many of these deposits contain foliage which it is apparently hard 
to assign to any other family. 
The fossil in question is a small fruit or cone from the London 
Clay, and is one of the most beautiful and best known of British 
Eocene fossils. Two figures of it grace the wrapper of Bower- 
bank's ‘ Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay,’ and its 
attractive form has led to its illustration in tables of British 
fossils and in text-books. It is referred to in almost every work 
treating in general of British Tertiary Geology, and in many of 
the works on Tertiary plants that have been published abroad. 
Though generally spoken of as a * Sheppey fruit,” it is only met 
with washed out by the sea from the London Clay of Swale 
Cliff near Herne Bay ; and though far from an abundant fossil, 
it has been so sought by collectors, that Bowerbank's collection 
contained nearly three hundred specimens, and I have since 
brought together a scarcely inferior quantity. Rarely, however, 
has the true nature of so attractive a fossil been so long mis- 
understood ; and this is the more surprising, as perhaps few have 
been so frequently examined by botanists. 
I am not sure whether it was noticed by any writers previous 
to the publication of Bowerbank's work in 1840*; but in that 
year the cones were minutely described and several specimens 
carefully figured. The author at first considered them to be 
* ‘The Fossil Fruits and Seeds of the London Clay.’ 
LINN. JOURN.—BOTANY, VOL. XX. 2M 
