INTRODUCTION. 



and fully illustrated account of Bennett-lies Gibsimianits and the 

 new genus of which it is the- typo, showing well-petrified 

 anatomical details of the stem and fructifications. 



In the Survey memoir of 1875 Topley refers to some of the 

 fossil plants found in the Lower Greensand (pp. 118, 127), but 

 adds nothing new to the lists. This is also the case in the body 

 of Dixon's (1878) work, though iu this Carruthers has a special 

 section on the Lower Cretaceous flora (p. 279), in which he 

 unites the Wealden and the Lower Greeusand plants already 

 known. 



By ]885 the different beds of the Lower Greensand are 

 individually mentioned, and Etheridge (1885, p. 536) writes : 

 " The so-called ' Iguanodon Quarry ' at Maidstone exhibits the 

 greater part of the Hythe beds, with Triyonia caudata, Exoyyra 

 sinuata, Gervillia aviculoidcs, coniferous wood, and Ignites 

 Mantellii, P. patens, and P. Benstedi" 



In 1886 the British Association Committee on the Mesozoic 

 plants reported and recorded two further Lower Greensand 

 cones from Potton, viz. Pinites cylindroides and P. pottoniensis 

 (see Gardner, 1886). 



In 1887, Williamson adds to Lindley & Hutton's meagre 

 account of (Abies) Pinites oblonya some account of its internal 

 structure, the relation of the seeds to the scales, etc., but does 

 not give any account of the cellular anatomy. 



In 1888 Prestwich, referring to the Lower Greensand, writes 

 (p. 270) : " The flora is very similar to that of the Wealden. 

 The Pinites Sussexiensis is a true pine. The cones found in 

 this formation are of much interest. Four of them, of which 

 three are from the Kentish Rag of Maidstone, belong to the 

 Cedar. A beautiful and perfect cone from Shanklin, the Pinites 

 Leckenbyi, also resembles in size and form the cones of Pinus 

 cedrus, L. At the present day the Cedar is represented by 

 only two species the Cedar of Lebanon and the Deodar of 

 India. Some fine cones have also been found in the neigh- 

 bourhood of Leighton in Buckingham. In the sands of Potton, 

 a cylindrical stem (Yatesia Morrisii} covered with short tumid 

 leaf-bases, and allied to the Zamia group of living Cycadeae, has 

 been found; with also a small species of MantelUa (M. indusa, 

 Carr.)." 



Solms-Laubach iu 1890 published a German paper, reprinted 



