ON THE HIGHER EOCENE BEDS OF THE ISLE OF WIGHT. 421 



dehiscent, the smaller valve in falling away leaves a pear-shaped or key- 

 hole-like opening(pl. III., figs. 30 and 30b), and the fruit is empty or con- 

 tains, like FoUiculites, a membranous sac. The large valve has a single keel 

 and the smaller possesses three elevated ridges. The vast majority have 

 dehisced, but those that are still closed will usually float in water if 

 washed out of the matrix. I am still in ignorance regarding the proper 

 place of the fruit, but nothing has more deeply impressed me than the 

 persistence of this band. In looking from the shore line at Hordwell 

 across to Headon Hill, and realising that the whole interval was probably 

 once carpeted to the depth of a foot with a mass of fruits of a single 

 species, one realises the extraordinary prodigality of Nature, and marvels 

 that even this stupendous provision for perpetuating the species has not 

 sufficed to rescue it from utter extinction. 



DESCEIPTION OF THE PLATES. 

 Plate III. 



Carjwlithes glolndus, Heer. 



Figs. 1-9. — This fruit occurs in enormous profusion. The layers are innumerable and 

 often close together, extending through the Hamstead, except the marine beds, as well 

 as the Bembridge marls. The sorting process has been very effectual, for scarcely a seed 

 or any foreign body is found in the husk layers, though globose fruits are sparsely 

 sprinkled among them. The question is whether the wrinkled and flattened bodies, 

 figs. 5, 6, 9, are distinct from the globose fruits, as supposed by Heer, who named 

 them Nymphcea Boris and CarpulitJies globulus respectively, or whether the view that 

 the one is the empty and husk condition of the other is correct. The round body 

 is clearly a fruit composed internally of compartments, figs. 7 and 8, from which I 

 extracted the seed, fig. 10. This certainly cannot have anything to do with Nymphjea, 

 no remains of which have been found of this age in Great Britain. If the flattened 

 bodies are the integuments of seeds they are obviously of seeds which have not 

 germinated, but of which the albumen has disappeared. The very great diversity of 

 size (compare figs. 5 and 9, which are not extremes) is alone almost conclusive against 

 the view that they are seeds, and their incredible abundance is in favour of their 

 being a waste product, ie., a vegetative organ which had discharged its functions. 

 The proportion of fruits which have missed shedding their seed is such as may be 

 continually observed in nature. The deeply wi'inkled appearance of the husks shows 

 that they were not originally flat, and when not flat they are the globose fruit. 

 The variation in size of the one tallies exactly with that of the other (compare figs. 

 1, 3, 4 of the globose form with figs. .5 and 9). The two are invariably found 

 associated together, and the globose fruits are never found separately, as might be 

 e.xpected if they were distinct, whilst, on the other hand, no other fruits are mingled 

 with them. The case in favoiu- of separation is unsupported by any argument what- 

 ever, and I am convinced it would never have occuixed to any one working in the 

 field to regard them as aught but two conditions of the same organism. I doubt 

 whether they are really distinct fi-om Carjwlithes ovulum, Br. 



Fig. 1 is a full-sized fruit; the integument is black and shining, dense and 

 moderately thick. 



Fig. 2 shows the scar of attachment. 



Figs. 3 and 4 represent the smaller sized fi'uits of the same kind. 

 Fig. 5 represents the flat view of a husk, and fig. 6 the edge view of same. (In 

 this state they are the Nymphcea Boris of Heer.) 



Fig. 7 is a broken fi-uit showing the outer face of three chambers, and fig. 8 shows 

 the inner face of two chambers. The largest fruits had apparently six chambers, 

 whilst the smaller ones had fewer, and perhaps in the smallest there may have been 

 only one. 



Fig. 10 represents three views of a seed extracted from a chamber. 



