248 EEPORT— 1886. 



other hand the fruits of an Ahius, like that from Swale Cliff, abound. 

 There is no large variety among the leaves, the majority being large 

 and simple, but with highly serrate margins, and the species will not be 

 found to exceed 12 or 14 in number, including Plataniis, which is rare. 



Though we have continued to collect the Reading, we have been unable 

 80 far to determine any new species. The assemblage of fmits at Sheppey 

 on the other hand becomes of increasing interest, and has proved unex- 

 pectedly rich in Palms, many of them apparently identical with existing 

 species which are now found growing in the remotest regions. 



Besides the large variety of Nipas, which are still met with in enor- 

 mons abundance among the seed-vessels of the New Guinea drift, we have 

 seeds indistinguishable from Verschaffeltia splendida, endemic to the 

 Seychelles, from Sahal Blackhurniana of the Bermudas, from a Desmoncus, 

 an Areca, a Monodora, and probably of many, certainly of some other 

 Palms. When we consider that probably many of the kinds of Palm 

 fruits would sink at once, we realise how great an assemblage of this 

 magnificent family is indicated by the Sheppey drift. 



The difiiculties we fear of determining anything but a fraction of the 

 Sheppey fruits must prove insurmountable. Their outer coats are for the 

 most part destroyed, and some part of their inner structure, nearly always 

 quite different in form from that which is external, is revealed. Botanists 

 have been able to determine but few of the drifted fruits brought home 

 by the Challenger, though these are more perfect and of living species be- 

 longing to definite and known floras. 



The Bournemouth cliffs continue to furnish fresh forms, though the 

 leaf-beds are becoming more and more difficult of access. We have 

 especially enriched the series of Smilacece, and a complete account of them 

 has been presented to the Linnean Society. The series now obtained falls 

 little short of a hundred specimens, and is by far the richest of fossil 

 Smilaceae, perhaps of any family, ever brought together. Such a material 

 has enabled us to reduce the number of distinct species to no more than 

 five, most of which are represented by foliage in all stages of development, 

 from the largest leaves measuring several inches, down to quite minute 

 leaves from near the extreme growing points. The necessity for such ex- 

 tensive series when dealing with fossil leaves may not at once be apparent, 

 but the President of the Linnean Society expressed the opinion at the 

 meeting that out of less material not five but five-and-twenty species 

 might have been made. 



The leaves of Smilacete are highly characteristic, and can be de- 

 termined 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. 

 There is indeed little hope that more than a very few can be determined with 

 anything like the precision required for botanical purposes, unless we can 

 call in aid the fruits or some other organs. Thus if we may base a con- 

 clusion upon the large number of the characteristic bracts, which envelope 

 the seed in a section of Flemingia that are met with in the Bournemouth 

 flora, the leaves of that genus should be far from -uncommon, and they 

 should also be found in the Swiss Oligocene, yet no species of Flemingia 

 has ever been recorded from the Tertiaries. The leaves, however, may 

 perhaps be sought for among the species oi Poptdus and Carpinus. 



Fortunately fruits and even flowers are comparatively abundant at 

 Bournemouth, and we consequently anticipate little difficulty in determin- 

 ing leaves belonging to such easily distinguishable fruits as Alnus, Tilia, 



