Ixx. PRESIDENT'S ADDRESS. 



Mr. F. Bullen Newton's paper on the Gault fossils of Okeford 

 Fitzpaine is a valuable addition to the geological literature of the 

 county, and our gratitude is due to Miss Barbara Forbes and to 

 Miss Lowndes for their careful attention and supervision over the 

 diggings while these interesting beds were being exposed. The 

 fossils give no evidence of the presence of the Lower Greensand, 

 as was at first supposed, all being typical of the Gault ; the 

 Ammonite, Acanthoceras mammillatus, being the characteristic 

 fossil of the Lower and Hoplites iuterruptus of the Upper. The 

 Acanthoceras bed is sandy, micaceous, and oolitic ; the Hoplites 

 bed consists of sandy clay, with phosphatic nodules. There is an 

 underlying bed of pure sand, which may possibly belong to the 

 Lower Greensand. Hoplites Benettianus occurs in the Acanthoceras 

 mammillatus section, and is interesting, as the late Miss Ethel 

 Benett was the first to find it in the Wiltshire Cretaceous beds. 

 Some few Gault species, such as Nautilus clementinus and Exogyra 

 caniliculata, survive upward to the Upper Greensand. Pholadomya 

 Favrina represents a genus which had a marvellous development 

 during the Jurassic age, but has dwindled down to only one species 

 at the present day. It played an important part in the fauna of 

 that period, and was represented by 48 species. Ten species 

 only have been found in the strata of the Cretaceous, of which 

 P. Favrina is one, five in the Eocene, and one in the Pliocene, of 

 which the Australian species may be a survival. The genus 

 Trigonia had also a similar large development, and was represented 

 by 88 species in the Jurassic age, 22 in the Cretaceous age, and 

 five at the present day, all restricted to the Australian seas. 

 The Okeford Fitzpaine Trigonice are T. aliformis, T. Archisiana, 

 and T. Fittoni. 



Since my last anniversary address Mr. A. C. Seward, F.R.S., has 

 written an interesting monograph on the fossil cycadean tree from 

 the Purbeck beds of Portland, which he considers to be one of the 

 most remarkable specimens in the fossil-plant gallery of the British 

 Museum. Like most species of recent cycads, the persistent bases 

 of the spirally-arranged leaf-stalks cover the surface of the stem, as 



