453 



Kingsteignton and Decoy, all near Newton Abbot; nothing was 

 found except at the last place, where a stem of Sequoia Couttsice was 

 met with, thus showing that the deposit is identical with that at 

 Bovey Heathfield. 



XVI. "The Fossil Flora of Bovey Tracey." By Dr. OSWALD 

 HEER, Professor of Botany and Director of the Botanical 

 Gardens in Zurich. Communicated by Sir CHARLES LYELL. 



(Abstract.) 



The surface-covering of the Bovey plateau consists of a light- 

 coloured quartzose sand, which contains here and there considerable 

 beds of white clay. By the plants contained in it this formation is 

 assigned to the Diluvium. 



Immediately under it come the beds of clay and lignite, which 

 belong to one formation, far older than that of the overlying white 

 clay; the plants found in them determine them as belonging unques- 

 tionably to the miocene period. Hence the formations must be 

 treated of separately. 



A. The Miocene Formation of Bovey. 



Of the forty-nine species of plants hitherto discovered in the 

 lignite beds of Bovey, twenty occur on the Continent in the miocene 

 formation. Those beds are therefore undoubtedly miocene. When 

 tabulated, it is seen that fourteen of the twenty species occur in the 

 Tongrien Stage, thirteen in the Mayencien, five in the Helvetien, and 

 eight in the CEningien ; hence the Bovey lignites must be ranged in 

 the under miocene, and in the Aquitanien etage of it. 



Moreover, the new species at Bovey are closely allied to well-known 

 continental forms on this horizon. 



It is remarkable that Bovey has no species in common with Ice- 

 land, although the tertiary flora of the latter belongs to the same 

 period, and two of its species have been found in the miocene de- 

 posit of Ardtun Head in Mull. The Bovey flora has a much more 

 southern character, manifesting, indeed, a sub-tropical climate. 



It has certainly some points of connexion with the eocene of the 

 Isle of Wight, but on the whole possesses an essentially different 

 character. The fact that but one species is common to it and Alum 

 Bay, whilst it has so many in common with the more remote miocene 



