ON THE FOSSIL PLAKTS OF THE TERTIARY AND SECONDARY BEDS. 243 



1831, that could possibly refer to this fossil, is a ' Cycadeoidea ? ' from 

 the Portland Beds, which occurs under the heading ' Woods ' on p. 9. A 

 journey to Newcastle with the object of examining the Hutton collection 

 of fossil plants, where it seemed probable the specimen might be found, 

 has been unsuccessful, and its present whereabouts is still unknown. We 

 think it, however, far more likely to prove a Jurassic than a Cretaceous 

 fossil if found, and the genus should not be included in lists of plants of 

 the latter age. 



The oldest Monocotyledons thus appear to be referable to the Panda- 

 neae, 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 Torkshire, which have been fully described 

 in the ' Geological Magazine ' for May and August. The one is apparently 

 an unopened palm-like spathe, and the other a jointed cane-like stem. 

 Mr. Brodie possesses an undoubtedly monocotyledonous leaf fragment 

 from the Purbeck of Swindon. 



The Aro'idece 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 

 Palaeozoic 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, however, appear as low down in our Eocene as the 

 Woolwich series. 



We are not yet able to speak with certainty regarding the supposed 

 liliaceous or Dracce7ia-\ike stems from the Wealden, so frequently men- 

 tioned by Mantell, and now in the British Museum, since they have not 

 yet been thoroughly examined ; but it is very probable that they are 

 liliaceous, and, if so, of the highest interest. The Wealden has so far 

 yielded no other trace of any more highly organised plants than ferns 

 and Gymnosperms, and this, when we remember that Monocotyledons 

 were undoubtedly in existence, is a fact that should be of great signifi- 

 cance to speculative geologists. The sediments must represent the deposits 

 of tlie 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 mainly by Cycads and Conifers. 



The same absence of Angiosperms, so far as British rocks are concerned, 

 is continuous throughout the Neocomian and Gault, and it is only in the 

 White Chalk that we meet with any indications of them, and these only 

 take the form of a more than suspicious impression of a net- veined leaf, 

 in the Jermyn Street Maseum, and of some structureless bodies which 

 were apparently some kind of fruit. 



When, however, we turn to the gymnospermous section of Phanero- 

 gams the records are very different. To refer here to the earlier Secondary 



e2 



