238 Geoloyical Societij. 



3. " On a Molar of a l^iiocene tj-pe of El[Uus from Xubia." By 

 11. Lydekker, Esq., B.A., F.G.S. 



A small collection of Mammalian remains from near Wadi Haifa 

 had recently been placed in the Author's hands ; some of the bones 

 were mineralized similarly to those of the Upper Pliocene of the 

 Val d'Arno, or the Lower Pleistocene of the Karbadii valley. 

 Amongst others the most interesting is a right upper cheek- 

 tooth of Equus but little worn. It evidently does not belong 

 to any of the late Pleistocene or Kecent species of the genus, but to 

 the more generalized group comprising E. siualensis, &c. ; though, 

 bearing in mind the impossibility of distinguishing many of the 

 existing species of tbe genus by their teeth alone, its absolute 

 Bpecific identity is not asserted. We may infer, then, that the ossifer- 

 ous beds of Wadi Haifa are not improbably of Pliocene age, since 

 this group of Horses, both in Europe, Algeria, and India, had totally 

 dis:i])peared after the period of the Porest-bed. Moreover, it is of 

 interest, in view of previously expressed opinion, to find in the Ter- 

 tiary of Nubia a species of this primitive group of Eijuas which is 

 apparently more nearly allied to the Siwalik than to the Eui-opean 

 species. 



January 12, 1887.— Prof. J. W. Judd, F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. " The Ardtun Leaf-beds." By J. Starkie Gardner, Esq., 

 F.G.S., F.L.S. ; with Notes by GrenviUe A. J. Cole, Esq., F.G.S. 



The description of these beds by the Duke of Argyll thirty-five 

 years ago indicated that enormous tracts of Trap in the Inner 

 Hebrides were of Tertiary age. Prof. Edward Forbes, who de- 

 scribed the leaves, inclined to the idea that they might be Miocene ; 

 but in estimating the value of this conjecture, we must remember 

 that at the time the existence of Dicotyledonous leaves of similar 

 aspect, but of undoubtedly Cretaceous age, was quite unsuspected, 

 and that no typical Eocene flora had then been properly investi- 

 gated or described. Prof. Heer, however, adopted the opinion that 

 the age of this formation was Miocene, and unfortunately extended 

 its application to formations containing similar floras in Greenland 

 and elsewhere. One object of the present communication is to 

 show that, instead of belonging to the Miocene, these floras are of 

 Eocene age, and in fact older than the Thanet beds. The other 

 object is to redescribe the plant-beds, and to show that they are 

 part of a rather extensive series of sedimentary rocks intercalated 

 among the Traps. 



The rapid accumulation of knowledge as to the distinguishing 

 characteristics of Cretaceous, Eocene, and Miocene floras has rendered 

 the attainment of the former object at least possible, and it is of 

 the greater importance, since the error in determining the ago of the 

 fossil floras of Ardtun and Antrim, and of a part of the Arctic flora 



