674 EEPOBT — 1888. 



4. Fossil Arctic Plants from the Lacustrine Deposit at Hoxne, in Suffolk. 

 By Clemext Reid, F.O.S., and H. N. Ridley, M.A., F.L.S. 



Near tlie village of Hoxne, close to the northern border of Suffolk, and about 

 five miles east of Diss, lies the well-known lacustrine deposit from which Palaeo- 

 lithic implements were obtained more than ninety years ago. This deposit has been 

 so well described that it may seem presumptuous to imagine that there is still 

 anything new to say about it. But it so happens that every observer up till now 

 has studied the deposit either from an archseological or from a geological point of 

 view. No one has paid special attention to the character of the associated plants, 

 or to the climatic conditions which these plants indicate. 



This deposit was described in 1797 by John Frere, and afterwards, in 1860, by 

 Professor Prestwich, who gave numerous details and showed that the lacustrine 

 deposit rests in a hollow in the Boulder Clay. 



The following is an abstract of the section given by Professor Prestwich : — 



Section in soitth-west corner of Hoxne brickfield. 



Feet 



a. Surface soil 1 to 2 



b. Brown and greyish clay, not calcareous. Two flint imple- 



ments. Bones of Bos 10 to 12 



c. Yellow sub-angular flint gravel. Elephas . . . . |^ to 1 



d. Bluish and grey calcareous clay, in places very peaty. 



Wooel and vegetable remains. Land and freshwater shells. 



Deer, horse, elephant . . . . . . . 3 to 4 



e. Gravel like c, but smaller 1 to 2 



/. Calcareous grey clay, more or less peaty, with freshwater 



shells (bored to 17 feet, but no bottom was reached) . 17 



The mollusca, to which the authors added two or three unrecorded species, are 

 all forms having a wide range. The plants obtained from bed d throw more light 

 on the climatic conditions. They include twenty-seven flowering plants, one C/iara, 

 and ten mosses. The specimens are chiefly seeds and fruits, with leaves of willow 

 and birch and wood of yew. The mosses are all fragments of the stem with leaves 

 attached. The list of species shows that the flora was an Arctic one corresponding 

 in many features to that of Iceland. The presence of Betula nana, Salix polaris 

 and »S. myrsinites is sufficient to show this. Tlie latter Sallow has not been hitherto 

 recorded as fossil, but its leaves are the bilberrj--like foliage mentioned by Professor 

 Prestwich. Salix polaris is now only known from very high arctic latitudes, but it is 

 well known as a fossil in glacial and post-glacial deposits. The mosses which Mr. 

 Mitten has identified for us have also an arctic or alpine facies. Acroceratiu7n 

 sarmentosum is now an inhabitant of the higher mountains of Killarney and 

 Scotland, as well as the arctic regions. The Cornel is represented by a single large 

 seed, differing somewhat from the common form and perhaps a variety. 



The larger part of the plants represented are aquatic or marsh plants, and nearly 

 all are plants still occurring in high latitudes at the present day ; but the Yew, 

 Bur-reed, Cornel, and Potaniogeton trichoides are absent from the arctic regions. 



The flora thus suggests the approach of a warmer climate following a cold one, 

 so that the arctic flora had not entirely gone by the time that the more temperate 

 one had begun to come. 



5. Report on an ancient Sea Beach near Bridlington Quay. 

 See Reports, p. 328. 



6. On the Origin of Oolitic Texture in Limestone Boclcs. 

 By Professor H. G. Seelet, F.E.S. 



The author believed that oolitic texture might originate in many ways. It 

 was stated to be found in limestones and iron ores of Silurian, Devonian, and 

 Carboniferous age, but to be most characteristic of the inferior and great oolite. 



