90 REPOKT— 1889. 



east and west end of the Isle of Wight, and were unable to find any bed 

 in which plant impressions were either distinct or varied, and those we 

 obtained were merely reeds and the so-called cinnamon leaves common to 

 so many of the tertiary floras. It seems that we must definitely recognise 

 that the Oligocenes in England were deposited under conditions that did 

 not permit the accumulation in them of those masses of forest debris so 

 characteristic of almost every stage of onr Eocenes. These latter were 

 the direct deposits of rivers of large volume, which swept down leaves, 

 flowers, fruit, seeds, twigs, bark, stipules, and every organ shed naturally 

 by forest trees, their undergrowth and parasites, which overhung the 

 river banks, or were carried to them by wind. The only absentees are 

 the fruits without buoyancy, and the tender herbaceous or heavy succulent 

 leaves, which wither on the stem, or decay very rapidly in water. The 

 lagoons or shallow estuarine water of the Oligocene bore no such spoils 

 from distant woods, and scarcely did their sluggish currents transport 

 and deposit the remains of the vegetation proper to their swampy shores or 

 islets. These drifted remains are found in patches, which some accident 

 has kept here and there in an unusual state of preservation, and it is by 

 the discovery of these that our knowledge of our Oligocene flora is, as a 

 whole, extended. One or two species are usually found occupying them 

 to the exclusion of all others, and their discovery is so fortuitous, and 

 destruction so rapid, that we can only look to local collectors to rescue 

 them. Mr. A' Court Smith, and more recently Mr. Colenutt, have been 

 particularly successful in localities that were previously regarded as 

 almost barren. The floras of the Hamstead beds, and of the Bembridge 

 marls, rich in ferns, pines, Doliostrobus, large palm leaves, Engelhardtia, 

 Myrica, &c., have already been described in previous reports. We now 

 find that the Osborne flora contains Doliostrobus, Athrotaxis, Myrica, 

 Cinnamon, reeds, palms, &c., and in no way differs from that of the rest 

 of the Oligocenes, which probably underwent but little change from 

 beginning to end. 



In looking over the Hamstead beds Mr. Clement Reid discovered 

 some layers crowded with a new fruit, about the form and size of a damson 

 stone, though completely flattened, and probably of a leathery rather than 

 woody texture. We were also fortunate enough to discover a large patch 

 of splendidly preserved Athrotaxis (Sequoia Couttsice, Heer) partly in clay 

 and partly in concretionary sand. This fortunately yielded cones in good 

 preservation, and which it was possible to dissect. They are identical 

 with the Hordwell specimens described in a former report, and do not 

 belong to Sequoia, bat distinctly to Athrotaxis. None of the specimens 

 previously known from the Hamstead beds showed the structure of the 

 cones, and it is remarkable that even in first describing the species from 

 Bovey Tracey, as Sequoia Couttsice, Heer did not allude to the internal 

 structure of the fruit, by which alone Sequoia can be separated from 

 Athrotaxis. 



I have taken the opportunity to reinvestigate the grounds on which 

 the highest member of the Isle of Wight Oligocene and the Bovey Tertiary 

 basin were correlated. As a result I am able to place a fine series of the 

 so-called Sequoia Couttsice from the two localities side by side, and find 

 that their correlation is due to a case of mistaken identity. On a cursory 

 examination the great similarity between the foliage and cones of the two 

 series from Hamstead and Bovey is striking, but on closer inspection we 

 see that the resemblance in the foliage is confined to the most slender 



