Zoological Society. 177 
Bovey basin was occupied by an inland lake. The entire absence of 
freshwater shells, and, indeed, of aquatic animals generally, is cer- 
tainly very extraordinary, and so is the absence of fruits of the 
Chara, so abundant elsewhere in miocene freshwater deposits; the 
Nymphea seeds, however, furnish a secure indication of fresh water. 
We must not omit to notice that the parts of the basin hitherto 
explored were towards the middle of the lake, and, in the case of the 
under beds at least, at a considerable depth, which explains the 
absence of bog-plants as well as of mammalian relics. 
The lignite beds consist almost entirely of tree-stems (probably 
belonging in great measure to Sequoia Couttsie) which have appa- 
rently been floated hither, not only from the circuit of the immediate 
hills, but doubtless also from greater distances. 
The twenty-sixth bed in the series, immediately above the “thick 
bed of sand,” is a soft clay with numerous leaves of plants, and ripe 
cones and seeds of Sequoia Coutisia ; the bed was probably formed 
in autumn, and the plants it contains are due to the driftings of that 
season. Higher up follows the bed (twenty-five) with fern rhizomes, 
and occasionally pinnules of Pecopteris lignitum. The latter appears 
in great abundance with branches of Sequoia still higher. 
As this under miocene formation is immediately succeeded by 
that of the gravel and white clay, we have here a great hiatus: 
either the middle and upper miocene, as well as the pliocene, periods 
must have passed without the formation of deposits in this place, or 
they must have been removed again in the diluvial period. 
B. The White Clay. 
While the lignites and their alternating clays present us with a 
subtropical vegetation, the plants of the White Clay exhibit a totally 
different character, and must have had their origin in an altogether 
distinct period. 
Four species—three of Salix and one of Betula—have been found 
in this overlying mass, no one of which appears to differ from species 
now living. The presence of the Betula (B. nana) is conclusive for 
a diluvial climate, that is, a colder climate than Devonshire has at 
the present day ; for this dwarf birch is an Arctic plant, which has 
no British habitat south of Scotland, and which occurs in Mid Europe 
only on mountains and sub-alpine peat mosses. The evidence of 
the willow-leaves is to the same effect, indicating that at this period 
Bovey Heathfield was a cold peat-moor. 
ZCOLOGICAL SOCIETY. 
June 25, 1861.—Dr. J. E. Gray, F.R.S., V.P., in the Chair. 
NOTES ON THE SEA-ANEMONES OF MADEIRA, witH Descrip- 
TIONS OF New Srecizes. By James YATE JOHNSON. 
In the following notes I have given an account of such Sea-Ane- 
mones as have occurred to me after much diligent search in the 
neighbourhood of Funchal, the capital of Madeira. The dredge 
Ann, & Mag. N. Hist. Ser.3. Vol.ix. - 12 
