On the so-called Tropical Forest Remains of Hampshire. 22? 



Seeing, as I have stated, that the subject has already 

 assumed a published form of a somewhat exhaustive charac- 

 ter, I shall content myself with referring members who feel 

 interested in the subject to Mr Gardner's details and specu- 

 lations, confining the brief remarks I have to make to a few 

 general observations. 



The whole line of coast, extending to about two miles on 

 each side of Bournemouth, that is to say, four miles from 

 Poole Harbour on the one side, to Christchurch on the other, 

 is encompassed with steep cliffs composed chiefly of fine 

 and variously coloured clays. The finest kind is that near 

 Poole, which is a pipe-clay, and is extensively excavated, and 

 of much mercantile value for making pottery. The clay in 

 which these leaves are found is considerably coarser than the 

 last mentioned, and is generally of a cream colour ; it is con- 

 tained in silted pockets, and crops out here and there at 

 uncertain distances in the cliff, and is evidently of fluviatile 

 origin. These clays are all overlain by the Brackleslmm and 

 Barton beds of the Eocene period, so that these leaf beds are 

 necessarily of the same period. 



The Bournemouth flora seems to consist principally of trees 

 or hard-wooded shrubs. There are also ferns, fungi, and coni- 

 ferae, several kinds of palm ; also cactus, Stenocarpus, Eucalyp- 

 tus, etc., which indicate, if not quite a tropical, at least a 

 much w^armer, climate than at present exists. 



Many of the trees of our own day, such as the oak, beech, 

 maple, chestnut, willow, laurel, etc., are plentifully represented 

 in these beds, and the curious thing is that such trees should 

 be mixed up with monocotyledons, such as the Panclamts 

 reed, and fan and feather palms, which too are found in 

 abundance. 



I have not as yet named any of the specimens I have got, 

 for the reason that I find identification very diflicult as 

 between existing genera and species — doubt in many cases 

 must always exist in consequence of the similarity of the 

 leaves of very diverse species. It cannot be even said that 

 any of these Tertiary leaves are precisely the same as the pre- 

 sent existent foliage. All that can be admitted is, that there 

 is a striking resemblance to the leaves of trees now growing 



