24 G Oeohgical Society, 



2. ' The Geological History of the Genus Stratiotes : an Account 

 of the Evdlutioiiaiv Changes which have occurred within the 

 Genus during the Tertiary and Quaternarj' Eras.' By Miss Marjorie 

 Elizabeth Jane Chandler. (Communicated by Mrs. E. M. Iteid, 

 13.Sc., F.L.S., F.G.S.) 



Stratiotes, a monotypic genus of European and West Asian 

 water-plants, is the descendant of a line of ancestors which can be 

 ti-aced back to the Eocene. The seeds have long been known 

 in the fossil state as Folliculites, P a ra doxocar^nis, etc., but their 

 relationship with Stratiotes was not recognized until 1896. For 

 many years the subject was in hopeless confusion, because the 

 species were ill-dellned and the types and tj'pe-localities lost or 

 inadequately studied. 



The recent seed is first investigated, and an account then given 

 of the modifications which have occurred in the genus since the 

 Eocene Period. Nine species are described or redefined, of w^hich 

 S. aloides alone is still living. Seven of them appear to constitute 

 links in an evolutionary chain which terminates in the recent 

 plant, while two perhaps represent a branch-line of evolution, 

 distinguished by certain peculiarities of form and raphe. 



As the fossil species occur in great abundance, and as several of 

 them are widespread geographically, while each seems to have a 

 limited range in time, there is a hope that Stratiotes may prove of 

 value in the correlation of isolated freshwater deposits in Europe. 



May 10th, 1922.— Prof. A. C. Seward, Sc.D., F.R.S., 

 President, in the Chair. 



The following communications were read : — 



1. ' The Lower Carboniferous Succession in the Settle District 

 and along the line of the Craven Faults.' By Prof. Edmund 

 Johnston Garwood, Sc.D., F.R.S., V.P.G.S., and Miss Edith 

 Goodyear, B.Sc, F.G.S. 



For some years past the problem presented by the marked 

 change in the character of the LoAver Carboniferous rocks in the 

 neighbourhood of the Craven Faults has attracted the attention of 

 geologists. This change w^as attributed by the late Mr. K. H. 

 Tiddeman to faulting along the line of the Craven Faults during 

 the deposition of the beds, w^hile Prof. J. E. Marr has suggested 

 that the special ' knoll-reef ' structures characteristic of the beds 

 lying south of the faults, are the result of earth-movements 

 of post- Carboniferous date. An essential feature of the problem 

 is the marked and sudden change in the character of the faunas, 

 m the neigh)K)urhood of the Middle Craven Fault, east of Settle. 

 The present communication records an attempt to solve the 

 problem by the method of detailed mapping of definite faunal 

 horizons. 



Two distinct faeies can be recognized in the district, which may 

 be denominated the North Country type and the South Country 

 type respectively. The standard succession adopted for the North 

 Country tj'pe is the zonal sequence already established for West- 



