JOITENAIj 



OF THE 



ROYAL MICROSCOPICAL SOCIETY. 



APRIL, 1907. 



TRANSACTIONS OF THE SOCIETY. 



III. — The President's Address: The Floiuering Plants of the 

 Mesozoic Age, in the Light of Recent Discoveries. 



By DuKiNFiELD H. Scott, M.A., LL.D., F.R.S. 



{Read January IQtli, 1907.) 



Plates VI. to IX. 



The subject which I have chosen for my address to-night relates 

 to the Flora of a period very remote from the present day, though 

 not so remote by far as periods of which I have had occasion to 

 ■ speak at previous meetings of the Society. We then referred to 

 the plants of the Palseozoic period, embracing a vast range of 

 time ; the strata with which we were actually concerned were 

 the Permian, the Carboniferous, and, in a lesser degree, the Devo- 

 nian, of which the Flora is still imperfectly known. My remarks 

 to-night relate to the plants of Mesozoic or Secondary age, ranging 

 from the Trias, through the Jurassic, to the Cretaceous : the great 

 period which bridges the gulf between the antique vegetation of 

 Palffiozoic days, and the essentially modern type of Flora which 

 ■characterises the Tertiary formations. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATE VI. 



For figs. 1, 4, 5, and 6, I am indebted to the kindness of Dr. Wielaud, who was 

 so good as to send me proofs of illustrations from his book. 



Fig. 1. — Cycadeoidea viarylandica. The earliest described American fossil Cycad. 

 From an original daguerrotype. Nearly thirty young fruits are marked 

 in the present view by the groups of bract scars interpolated between 

 the old leaf-bases. About one-fourth natural size. From Wieland's 

 " American Fossil Cycads." 



April 17th, 1907 K 



