2o6 NATURAL SCIENCE. Sept.. 



on to describe no less than thirteen species. So close is the re- 

 semblance to Nipa, that though widely separated from its present area 

 of distribution, there is little doubt but that the Sheppey fruits 

 belong to that genus of Palms. In fact, I was greatly tempted in a 

 recent monograph, which the Linnean Society did me the honour to 

 publish in their Journal, to follow Ettingshausen, who makes them 

 all species of Nipa. The suffix "ites" has, however, been much 

 used in palaeontological work, and as there must always be some 

 uncertainty in the specific diagnosis of fossils, based, as it often is, 

 on material which would scarcely be considered sufficient in the case 

 of recent plants, I have retained the form in which it was left by 

 Bowerbank. 



As often happens when a man makes a special study of small 

 groups of plants, Bowerbank made too many species out of his fossil 

 palm fruits. Some of these are founded on diff"erences which may be 

 merely individual variations or depend on the degree of maturity of 

 the fruit or its position in the head. It is important to remember 

 that, densely packed as they are in a sphere, there is not only 

 considerable variety in the number of sides to the fruit and the 

 development of the angles, but as many never ripen, all stages of 

 abortion may be found, especially near the base of the head, com- 

 pressed and distorted by the growth of the ripening drupes. There 

 is every reason to believe that the fossil fruits were borne in a similar 

 way. A comparison of some of Bowerbank's species with a number 

 of immature or aborted fruits, taken from a head kindly sent by 

 Mr. Ridley from Singapore, showed that more than one might be 

 thus accounted for. The thirteen can be in this way reduced to six 

 or at the most seven. One or more of these have also been found 

 near Bournemouth and in the Isle of Wight. Three years ago 

 Mr. Clement Reid, of the Geological Survey, made an interesting 

 discovery on the Sussex coast in the Bracklesham Beds, at 

 Bracklesham and West Wittering. In portions of the beach bared 

 by the effect of a recent gale, he saw embedded a number of large 

 fruits which we found on closer investigation to be Nipadites of a 

 much larger size than any hitherto found in this country, and quite 

 equalling those already referred to from the Belgian beds. Mr. Reid 

 has since come upon similar specimens at Hengistbury Head, near 

 Christchurch, Hants. The mode of preservation of these differs 

 from that of the London Clay and Belgian fruits, for while the 

 latter have been rendered hard and solid through the infiltration of 

 mineral matter, our recent finds consist merely of a carbonised shell 

 filled with sand, which rapidly crumbles on removal from the damp 

 sea beach, while the carbon film cracks and peels. Hence it is 

 impossible to keep them for any length of time. One, in a fair state 

 of preservation, is now in the Jermyn Street Museum, and another in 

 the British Museum at South Kensington. Fruits almost precisely 

 similar to these have been found in Italy, near Breonio, in Verona. 



