598 Geological Society, 



PROCEEDINGS OE LEARNED SOCIETIES. 



GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 



March 10th, 1915.— Dr. A. Smith Woodward, F.R.S., President, 

 in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. ' The Plants of the Late Glacial Deposits of the Lea Valley.' 

 By Clement Reid, F.R.S., E.L.S., V.P.G.S. 



Large collections of plants from the Lea Valley deposits, already 

 described, have been made by Mr. S. H. Warren, Mr. E. T. Newton, 

 and Mr. Wrigley. The localities from which the plants were ob- 

 tained are Angel Road, Hedge Lane, Ponders End, and Temple Mills. 

 A list from Ponders End has already been given by Dr. Lewis ; but 

 the new collections include many unrecorded species, several of which 

 have not previously been noted as British fossils. Although there 

 are slight differences, the collections from all four localities are so 

 similar as to leave no doubt that the deposits are contemporaneous. 

 The whole assemblage points to a very cold climate, though perhaps 

 not quite so cold as that indicated by the Arctic plants found at 

 Hoxne, in Suffolk. 



Among the more interesting novelties may be mentioned Armeria 

 arctica, a species of thrift now confined to Arctic America, although 

 it has also been recorded as a Pleistocene fossil from the continent 

 of Europe by Dr. C. A. Weber. Leaves of Salix lapponuni are also 

 abundant, though this species does not seem to have been found 

 fossil elsewhere. Some delicately - A'eined membranes, probably 

 identical with the ' petal-like objects ' mentioned by Dr. Lewis, 

 prove to be pods of the alpine Draha incana. Other shorter forms 

 are pods of a scurvy-grass, not yet satisfactorily determined. 



The extinct forms are a new species of Silene, near to 8. nocti- 

 flora but quite distinct, and a new Limim Avith large seeds. 

 This latter apparently is closely allied to om* cultivated flax 

 (L. usitatissimum), of which the origin is unknown. It may be 

 an ancestor of our common flax, but this latter is unknown far 

 north, and will not grow with Arctic plants ; the seeds of the two 

 are perceptibly different. No large-seeded flax is now living in the 

 Arctic regions. 



2. ' The Genus Lonsdaleia and Dihiinopliyllum rugosum 

 (McCoy).' By Stanley Smith, B.A., M.Sc, F.G.S. 



The present paper discusses the literature, structural characters 

 and develojiment, descent, classification, and distribution of the 

 coi-als constituting the genus Lonsdaleia ; it includes also a de- 

 scription of Dibunophyllum rugosum (McCoy). The Authors 

 reasons for including a description of I), rugosum in the paper 

 are, first, the fact that the species was originally described by 

 McCoy as Lonsdaleia rugosa ; and, secondly, that considerable con- 

 fusion exists between it and the fasciculate forms of Lonsdaleia. 



Lonsdaleia is a compound member of the Clisiophyllidae, and 



