INTRODUCTION. 



ENGLAND. 



THE Jurassic plant-bearing strata exposed in the cliff sections 

 of the Yorkshire coast, between Whitby and a few miles south 

 of Scarborough, have afforded unusually rich data towards a 

 restoration of the characteristics and composition of a certain 

 facies of Mesozoic vegetation. The abundance of specimens in 

 European museums and the descriptions of several British species in 

 the works of Brongniart, Sternberg, Zigno, and other Continental 

 palaeobotanists, bear testimony to the wealth of material obtained 

 from these Inferior Oolite rocks. The following passage from the 

 first volume of Schimper's Traite de paleontologie vigetah illustrates 

 the importance, which this eminent palaeobotanist attached to the 

 investigation of the English Jurassic flora: " On ne saurait assez 

 recommander aux paleontologistes anglais 1' etude approfondie de la 

 flore fossile de 1'oolithe de Yorkshire. C'est une des flores les 

 plus interessantes, a cause de sa grande ressemblance avec la flore 

 de la formation rhetique et du lias inferieur et d cause de son 

 rapport avec la flore cretacee. Les descriptions et les figures que 

 nous en possedons sont insuffisantes pour arriver a une delimitation 

 rigoureuse des genres et des especes. Aussi ai-je du passer sous 

 silence un certain nombre de ces dernieres faute de donnees exactes." * 

 In the present volume an attempt is made to describe in detail 

 the several elements composing the Jurassic flora of East Yorkshire, 

 and to furnish a general sketch of the geographical distribution 

 and botanical affinities of the vegetation represented by the Lower 

 Oolite plants of this area. 



Schimper (69), vol. i. p. 185. 



