238 PROCEEDINGS COTTESWOLD CLUB 1909 
to wash. The upper part of the clay-bed produced 
Ostracods in considerable abundance, both as regards 
numbers and variety, but in addition to the Ostracods, 
and almost equally numerous, were xucules of a species 
of Chara. The clay also contained a few Foraminifera, 
of forms common to the Top-Beds of the Inferior 
Oolite. 
The Foraminifera are mostly in a poor state of pre- 
servation. The Ostracoda and Chara-Nucules, on the 
other hand, are remarkably well-preserved, so much so 
indeed, that a considerable number of the nucules retain 
their projecting apical cells. 
Remains of Chara have been found in the Purbeckian, 
but not hitherto—so far as I am aware—in deposits of 
earlier date. The Forest Marble being considerably older 
than the Purbeckian, the history of the Characee is carried 
back to a correspondingly early period. 
For the purpose of reference I propose to describe 
the fossils as follows :— 
CHARA LAVIGATA, sp. nov. Plate XXVII, fig. 2.° 
Nucules oval, the proportion of breadth to length being 
about 3 to 4: variable in size, the larger specimens 
being about ‘o25in. in length. External surface of cells 
smooth and without ornamentation. 
The Characee being well-known fresh-water plants, 
the question naturally arises “ How do the nucules come 
to be found in the Forest Marble, which is a marine 
formation?” The explanation which I venture to suggest 
is that the clay in which they occur was deposited in a 
shallow slackwater tidal estuary, into which flowed a 
stream or streams bringing down periodically the nucules 
which from year to year were shed by the parent plants 
farther inland. Poole Harbour and the River Crouch 
furnish us with examples of the kind of estuary which I 
have postulated. 
