480 
MWA TORE 
[ Sept. 16, 1886 — 
We have examined a large number of specimens of the anoma- 
lous Jurassic plant described by Carruthers as 2/liamsonia. 
‘Though there are still mavy difficulties in the way, our own 
examination of the specimeus in London, Manchester, Cam- 
bridge, and elsewhere tends to confirm Saporta’s view, referring 
them to the group of Pandanacee, so far as that there does 
appear to be vestiges, in some cases at least, of lignitic structure 
which may represent the areolw or carpels. These rather minute 
cavities and the lignitic matter surrounding them fall away on 
exposure to the air, and only traces of them are visible. Should 
Saporta’s contention be upheld, M/i//iamsonia will be by far the 
most perfectly known of the Secondary Angiosperms, since 
all the organs of fructification and even of foliation are more or 
less known. 
A still more definite Monocotyledon is the Podocarya, from 
the Inferior Oolite, originally figured by Buckland, and re- 
described by Carruthers. Its resemblance to the fruit of 
Williamsonia, as interpreted by Saporta, is extremely striking, 
and on suggesting this to that author, he replied that he was in 
the act of preparing an important work on the very subject. 
The same work is to include an illustration of the most recent 
member of the group, obtained from the Grey Chalk of Dover, 
and which we thought advisable to communicate to him. 
Next in point of age, among English Monocotyledons, to the 
Podocarya is the Kaidacarpum, from the Great Oolite, also 
described by Carruthers, and by him referred to the Pandanee. 
We have been able to ascertain that a second species, hitherto 
supposed to be of Cretaceous age from the Potton Sands, is a 
derived fossil, and undoubtedly Jurassic. A third species was 
originally figured, without any refcrence in the letter-press as to 
its age or locality, by Lindley and Hutton as Svobilites Buch- 
land: ; this, however, is far more likely to prove a Jurassic than 
a Cretaceous fossil if found, and the genus should not be in- 
cluded in lists of plants of the latter age. 
The oldest Monocotyledons thus appear to be referable to the 
fandanee, a group of plants distributed in widely distant and 
remote oceanic islands, and whose fruits are still met with at 
sea in drifts of vegetable matter. 
Next to these in antiquity are two very monocotyledonous- 
looking fragments from the Jurassic of Yorkshire, which have 
been fully described in the Geological Ma,azine for May and 
August. The one is apparently an unopened palm-like spathe, 
and the other a jointed cane-like stem. Mr. Lrodie possesses 
an undoubtedly monocotyledonous leaf-fragment from the Pur- 
beck of Swindon. 
The Avordee have long been supposed to be a group of very 
high antiquity, but there are good reasons for believing that the 
supposed remains of aroideous plants from beneath the Tertiaries 
are, without exception, referable to other groups, and actually 
there are no known traces of them earlier than the Middle | 
Eocene, when they become by no means uncommon, 
In a similar manner the fruits once supposed to represent 
Palms in the Palazozoic and Mesozoic rocks have been gradually 
removed or suppressed, and, unless the fragments of palm-like 
wood in the Gault at Folkestone are taken into account, there are 
no traces of palms in any of our Secondary strata. They, how- 
ever, appear as low down in our Eocene as the Woolwich 
series. 
The supposed liliaceous or Dyacena-like stems from the 
Wealden, so frequently mentioned by Mantell, are not easy now 
to identify ; but it is very probable that certain stems of Zxao- 
genites in the British Museum are those intended, in which case 
they are of course cycaceous. The Wealden has, indeed, so far 
yielded no trace whatever of any more hizhly organised plants 
than ferns and Gymnosperms, and this, when we consider that 
Monocotyledons were undoubtedly in existence, is a fact that 
should be of great significance to speculative geologists. The 
sediments must represent the deposits of the drainage system of 
a large area, for they are of vast extent and thickness, varied in 
character, and abounding in remains of trunks and stems, fruits 
and foliage of plants. In them, therefore, if anywhere, we 
might reasonably expect to find at least the traces of reed and 
rush, but the swamps seem to have been tenanted only by 
Equisetum and ferns, and the forests by Cycads and Conifers. 
Angiosperms are absent throughout the Neocomign and Gault 
of Britain ; and it is only in the White Chalk that we meet with 
any indications of them. 
Of the gymnospermous section of Phanerogams the records 
are very different. To refer here to the earlier Secondary 
Coniferze and Cycadez would be quite beyond our province, 
and it is only those of the Cretaceous, as the last discoverable 
ancestors in our area of the Eocene flora, that are of immediate 
interest. These belong, excluding Cycads, chiefly to the newest 
section of the Coniferee, the Pine family. We are able to make 
the following contribution to our knowledge of these :—/irites 
| Andrei, Coemaus (Gault, Folkestone) ; P. Valensis, sp.nov. 
| (Wealden, Brook Point, Isle of Wight) ; P. Carruthers’, sp.nov. 
, Greensand, Potton). 
(Wealden, Brook Point, Isle of Wight) ; P. cydindroides, sp.nov. 
(Lower Greensand, Potton); P. Fottonienss, sp.nov. (Lower 
These are described and figured; the 
report then gives a list of thirteen species of British Cretaceous. 
Conifer previously described. 
Passing to the Tertiary forms the report refers to leaves in 
the basement bed of the London Clay at Colden Common, be- 
tween Bishopstoke and Winchester: the blocks of clay in which 
the leaves occur are derived, but the plants are allied to the Alum 
Bay flora ; there are no palms. 
Much work has been done in collecting at Sheppey, but there 
are great difficulties in the way of determining the fruits, 
A large series of leaves of Syzilacee has been obtained from 
Bournemouth, by means of which the number of good species is- 
now reduced to five. 
The leaves of Své/acee are highly characteristic, and can be 
determined with a large degree of certainty ; but it is quite 
improbable that such will be the case with very many of the 
families of Dicotyledons. 4 
Fortunately fruits and even flowers are comparatively abundant. 
at Bournemouth, and we consequently anticipate little difficulty 
in determining leaves belonging to such easily distinguishable 
fruits as Alnus, Tilia, Acer, Carpinus, the Leguminose, and 
many others, but the residuum with indeterminable fruits, or 
fruits that will not float, may be very large. We are thus 
brought to the question, whether any value beyond that of mere 
landmarks, or aids to the correlation of rocks, can be attached 
to the determinations of fossil dicotyledonous leaves arrived at 
when fruits are absent. Nearly every Tertiary and even many 
Cretaceous floras are said to comprise Quercus, Fagus, and 
Corylus, to select these as typical examples. Now, we very 
much doubt whether the fruits of these genera have been met 
with in any strata older than the Upper Miocene, we might 
almost say the Pliocene ; whilst in the latter the fruits of at least — 
two of them are very far from uncommon. Fossil hazel-nuts 
are well known to abound in forest beds such as the one at 
Brook, in the Isle of Wight, and at Carrickfergus. It does 
appear to us that it would have been wiser and more consistent, 
when arriving at these determinations, to have taken the absence 
of fruits into account, when these were such as would naturally 
have been preserved. The large proportion of fossil dicotyled- 
onous leaves that have been referred without any hesitation to — 
living genera, must strike every one, in comparison with the 
relatively few associated fruits that have been determined other- 
wise than as Carpolithes—a name which isa confession of failure. 
| It will thus be seen that in our opinion the fossil Dicotyledons of 
our own Eocene must be dealt with in a manner different from 
that pursued by the majority of foreign writers on kindred 
subjects, and that a revision of much of their work is urgently 
needed. 
Report on the Caves of North Wales, by Dr. H. Hicks, F.R.S. 
—The explorations have been confined to the caverns of Ffynnon 
Beuno and Cae Gwyn, in the Vale of Clwyd. Among the 
remains discovered in these two caverns up to the commence- 
ment of the work this year there were over eighty jaws belonging 
to various animals, and more than 1300 loose teeth, including 
about 400 rhinoceros, 15 mammoth, 180 hyzna, and 500 horse: 
teeth. Other bones and fragments of bones occurred also im 
very great abundance. Several flint implements, including 
flakes, scrapers, and lance-heads, were found in association with 
the bones. The most important evidence, however, obtained in 
the previous researches was that bearing on the physical changes 
to which the area must have been subjected since the caverns 
were occupied by the animals. During the excavations it became 
clear that the bones had been greatly disturbed by water action, 
that the stalagmite floor, in parts more than a foot in thickness, 
and massive stalactites had also been broken and thrown about 
in all positions, and that these had been covered afterwards by 
clays and sand containing foreign pebbles. This seemed to 
prove that the caverns, now 400 feet above Ordnance datum, 
must have been submerged subsequently to their occupation by 
the animals and by man. One of the principal objects, there- 
