BAJOCIAN PLANT BEDS OF YORKSHIRE. 



By Rev. John' Hawell, M.A., F.G.S. 



Were it not for the testimony of the Yorlcshire Rocks very 

 little would be known of the vegetation of tlie Bojocian or Lower 

 Oolite period, at all events in the European area. Since the time of 

 Young and Bird and John Phillips, Yorkshire has been the classical 

 locality for Bajocian jjlant.s. In tlie Yorkshire area the complete 

 series of the Bajocian strata is as follows : — 



Upper Estuarine Beds. 



Grey or Scarborough Limestone. 



Middle Estuarine Beds. 



Millepore Bed. 



Lower Estuarine Beds with Ellerbeck Bed or 

 Hydraulic Limestone. 



Dogger. 



But tliese beds are not usually all present in any one locality. The 

 plants are found in each of the three series of Estuarine Beds. 

 The Lower Estuarines arc the most arenaceous, aud contain thick 

 sandstones, which can often be traced for considerable distances. 

 These beds have near their centre a marine 1)and known as the 

 Ellerbeck Bed. According to the list given liy Mr. Fox-Straiigways 

 in his " Jurassic Rocks of Yorkshire," fifty species of plants have 

 been obtained from these beds. He acknowledges, however, that 

 some of these may possibly have come from a higher hdrizon. Only 

 13 of the numlier, however, pass up into the Middle Estuarines, 

 which fact appears to show that, though the deposit was being made 

 more or less continuously, a very considerable period must have 

 elapsed Avhile the deposition was going on. The localities from 

 which fossil plants have been obtained in this series are Hayburu 

 AYyke, Saltwick, Whitby, Staintnndale and Egton Moors. 



On the Coast and in the Howardiau Hills the Lower Estuarine 

 series are divided from the ^fiddle Estuarines by the ^Millepore Bed. 

 But in the northern moorland area the INIillepore Bed has died 

 out, and consequently it is impossible, apparently, to sei)arate the 

 Lower from the Middle Estuarines. But where the separation can 

 be made, at Gristhorpe and Cloughton, the latter beds have yielded 

 56 species of plants. Several of the plants recorded from Clough- 

 ton may really be from the Lower Estuarines, but of the 56 species 

 referred to 54 have been obtained from Gristhorpe. It is the 

 iMiddle Estuarine Beds, though their thickness is less than either of 



