Fossil Plants. 139 



means common in England. A few specimens of wood are shown OALLEEY 

 in Table-case 20, and some examples of a supposed alga, wliich, 3t. 

 like many of the so-called fossil seaweeds, may be an entirely Wall-caiei 

 inorganic structure. It was during the Cretaceous period that Tablel 

 the highest class of plants, the Angiosperms (Monocotyledons and *>"«■ 

 Dicotyledons), began to play a conspicuous part in the vegetation 

 of the world. In England we find numerous examples of these 

 plants in the still more recent Ter'fiaky rocks ; the London Clay 

 of Sheppey, the leaf-beds of Alum Bay, Bournemouth, and other 

 places, have afforded numerous specimens of flowering plants. 

 These are shown in Table-cases 19, 18, and 17, and in Wall- 

 case 12. A large palm-leaf from Bournemouth, over a yard in 

 length, affords a striking illustration of the subtropical character 

 of the flora of Tertiary Britain. The fossil fruits from Sheppey 

 known as Nipadites, are very similar in appear;ince to those of 

 the living genus Nipa, one of the palms, of which- the fruits are 

 carried down in great numbers by the waters of the Ganges and 

 other rivers, as in Tertiary times similar fruits were swept along 

 by the waters af a river, of which the delta is in part represented 

 by the London Clay af the Isle of Sheppey. Among other 

 Tertiary plants may be mentioned the splendid slab from Mull, 

 with large leaves like those of the recent plane-tree; also a 

 collection of leaves brought by Mr. Edward Whymper from Green- 

 land, and described by the late Oswald Heer ; pieces of wood 

 from Disco Island, and several good examples of Austrian plants 

 from Styria and other places. In addition to the leaves of 

 Angiosperms from Tertiary beds, fragments of coniferous trees 

 and detached cones, also a few fern fronds, are represented in 

 the Museum collection. Of still more recent date may be 

 mentioned specimens of nuts, cones, etc., from the Post-Tertiary 

 beds of Norfolk; also large masses of Chara, in Wall-case 10, 

 incrusted with carbonate of lime, and foreign specimens of 

 travertin containing distinctly preserved leaf impressions. 



lu the middle of the gallery will be found some exceedingly 

 fine examples of Coal-measure plants from Radstock, in Somer- 

 setshire, presented by James McMurtrie, Esq., F.G.S. In other Glased- 

 cases are shown specimens of silicified coniferous and angiosperraous ^_q 

 wood from the Upper Jurassic rocks of Portland, from Tertiary 

 strata in Antigua, and other places. 



A fine opalized tree from Tasmania, a series of silicified woods 



