BOOM L FOSSIL PALMS. 51 



cumstances under which they occur, I proceed to notice the 

 only specimens worthy of remark. These are two or three 

 examples of the nuts of an extinct genus of palm, closely 

 allied to the recent JTtpa, which is a low shrub-like plant 

 that inhabits the Moluccas, growing in marshy tracts near the 

 mouths of rivers, where the water is brackish. The Nipa has 

 borne fruit hi the conservatory of Mr. Yates, of Lauderdale 

 House, Highgate. The fossil fruits (named Xipatite* Parkin- 

 soni), are known to the resident dealers and collectors at Shep- 

 pey as u petrified jig*? The nut or seed, and its pericarp or husk* 

 are often well preserved, as in one of the specimens in the 

 case before us. 1 Mr. Bowerbank, who some yean since assidu- 

 ously collected the fossil fruits of the Isle of Sheppey, and 

 published three numbers of a work on the subject, whose ex- 

 cellence renders its discontinuance muMi to be regretted, has 

 figured and described several species,* Mr. B. observes, that 

 "if the habits of the plants to which the fossil fruits belonged 

 were similar to those of their recent analogue, the *V;*i, it 

 will account for their abundance in the London clay in the 

 Isle of Sheppey ; which formation, from the great variety of 

 the fossilized stems and branches, mixed up with star-fishes, 

 shells of mollusks, and bones of fishes, crustaceans, and rep- 

 tiles of numerous marine and fresh-water genera, is strikingly 

 characterized as having been the delta of an immense river, 

 which probably flowed from near the equator towards the 

 spot where these interesting relics are deposited."* 



PalwuKite* Lamanani*. Cote E. [5.] In the narrow recess 

 in this case, on the left of the door-way, there is a palm-leaf 

 imbedded in cream-coloured limestone, from the Eocene de- 

 posits of Aix, in Provence (this specimen was formerly in the 

 Author's collection). The leaves of several extinct species of 



* Figured in "Pictorial Atla*," PL VL VIL 

 - History of the Foanl Fnutoand Seeds of the Londom Clay W tie 

 We of Sheppey." 1840: London. 

 As the aeed-vemeb and other vegetable remain* in the fefe f0h*f- 



pey are aU of a tropical character, while taoce found inthe Boeene 

 ateUof Alra Bay , BoomemoaUi. and Kcwharen, are of a temperate 



hoold be*re^rded a tran^orted from dUtent land, by cnrrenU and 

 the latter m tlu tne iam of * mmtoj inhabited by tne PalieoUiena 



