314 Hawell : An Oolitic Plant Bed in North Cleveland. 



after lying in it for twenty years or more within a foot or two of 

 the surface, still in g-ood unweathered condition. 



Although I have so far obtained my larg-est and finest 

 specimens from the spoil heap, I have been able to trace the 

 plant-bearing- shales right round the quarr}-. Here and there 

 concretionary box-stones occur in lines or otherwise, and pretty 

 plant-impressions may be found on these boxes. Near the 

 east end of the quarr}' the thickness of shale remaining- is 

 small, and it is covered by g^lacial drift, and apparently disturbed 

 to a small extent by the passag-e of the glacier. It is not 

 improbable that in the glacial deposits to the south-eastward 

 ferruginous shales with plant remains may be found which could 

 be referred with some amount of probabilitv to this hillside as 

 their place of origin. 



With the help of Mr. A. C. Seward's valuable monograph on 

 the Jurassic Flora of Yorkshire and other works I was able to 

 identify most of the plants obtained on the occasions of mv first 

 two or three visits, but one plant appeared to be quite distinct 

 from any species of which I could find figure or description. 

 I therefore wrote to Mr. Seward to ask him if he would kindly 

 look at it. He very kindly expressed his willingness to do so, 

 and accordingly 1 forwarded specimens of the supposed novelty, 

 taking the opportunity to send at the same time other specimens, 

 of some of which I was desirous to have his confirmation of my 

 determination. 



After having looked through the parcel he wrote on i6th 

 December last, ' I have looked over the specimens of plants 

 with much enjoyment ; they are, many of them, exceedingly 

 good, and the preservation of venation and other characters is 

 unusually perfect. . . . The most interesting- type, repre- 

 sented by two or three specimens, is Dictyosamites — a genus not 

 hitherto found in Britain and, speaking from memory, confined 

 to India, Japan, and Bornholm.' Mr. Seward also expressed his 

 desire to describe some of the specimens, and it was ultimately 

 arranged that he should write for the Geological Society of 

 London a paper on Dictyosamites, and that I should prepare 

 a paper on the other plants and the plant-bed generally. Mr. 

 Seward's paper was read on 25th February last.'"' He has paid 

 me the compliment of naming the new species Dictyosa^nites 

 Haivelli. He pronounces it to belong to Nathorst's group of 

 the Cycadophyta. It was probably a Cycad, but there is so far 



* See Quart. Journ. Gecl. Soc, No. 234, 1903, pp. 217-233, for detailed 

 description of the species. 



Naturalist, 



