512 BEPORT— 1882. 



I must therefore refer you to, as givdng step by step an analysis of the structure of 

 the cliffs, and the flora contained in the clays and sandy series of which they are 

 composed. This flora of the Bournemouth marine beds may be referred to the Middle 

 Bagshot series, and the Bracklesham division, possiblj' representing the same stage 

 in the London basin, and it would appear from careful consideration of the Middle 

 and Upper Bagshots that no Eocene beds younger than the Bracklesham are met 

 with in the London area, a geological fact of much significance as compared with 

 the complete succession of the Eocene series as developed in the Hampshire basin, 

 and that of their equivalents in the basin of Paris. Mr. Gardner believes that 

 ' the fossil plant remains of the Bournemouth beds, especially those in the marine 

 series, are of the same age as those in the Bovey Tracey deposits, which have been 

 wrongly assigned to the Miocene period, believing, in I'act that they are simply an 

 outlier of the Bournemouth series, now 80 mUes to the west,' but formerly and 

 originally connected as a western extension of the Bournemouth deposits. 



Comparison of the flora of the two areas shows a close affinity, if not identity 

 of species, Osmunda lignata, Laatrcea Bunburyi, Palmacites damonorops, the 

 fruits, conifers, and dicotyledons being not only specifically identical, but occur 

 in the same combinations and manner of preservation,' loc. cit. pp. 227, 228. Poly- 

 podium, Chrysodium, Pteris, and Osmunda, amongst the ferns ; Eucalyptus, brandies 

 of Sequoia, pods and leaves of the Leguminosae, Nipadites, Dryandra, Cacti, Anona, 

 Hightea, &c. occur in the beds constituting the western termination of the Bourne- 

 mouth marine series. The fauna testifies to its marine derivation by the genus Ostrea, 

 Area, Modiola, Tellina, Calyptroea, Phorus, Natica, and Cerithiiim. The Crustacea, 

 through Callianassa, and a shore crab, with Bryozoa (Flustra), need no other com- 

 ment. The changing physical characters of the beds of the Bournemouth series, 

 both horizontally and vertically, the marshy character of the flora, * as represented 

 by the ferns, aroids. Eucalyptus, &c., the patches of clay, in which the water-plants, 

 ferns, &c. may have rooted, the local patches of ironstone, the intercalated marine 

 beds and their fauna, mingled with unios, clearly shows that this was the debateable 

 ground between sea and river, beyond which to the west it would appear the sea 

 never then penetrated.' In February of the present year, Mr. Gardner communi- 

 cated to the Geological Society his second paper on these Bournemouth beds, being 

 a continuation of his former notice, but in this his researches are confined to the 

 history of the ' Lower or Freshwater Series ' • of the Bournemouth area. The 

 author describes the geological structure of the Eocene clifis as far as Poole harbour. 

 All the strata between Bournemouth and Poole harbour are of freshwater origin, 

 and highly interesting on account of the fossil flora recently obtained from them by 

 Mr. Gardner — undoubtedly the most extensive, richest, and most varied hitherto 

 discovered or extracted from the Tertiary formations. No less than nineteen species 

 of ferns have been described from these beds. Only ten species have been met with 

 in all the other British Eocene deposits, including the famous Bovey Tracey beds, 

 and three of these ten are also found at Bournemouth. Sir C. Lyell, in 1827, the 

 Rev. P. B. Brodie, in 1842, Mantell, in 1844, Prof. Prestwich, in 1847, Trimmer, in 

 1855, De la Harpe, in 1856, and Heer, in 1859, have all written upon the flora 

 and its associated conditions, origin, &c. In 1862, the Geological Survey, through 

 the Memoir by Forbes and Bristow upon the Isle of Wight, held the view that the 

 fossil flora of Bournemouth, Corfe, and Alum Bay, were identical, although few 

 species were common to these localities. * The cUAb comprising the Bournemouth 

 freshwater series extend from Poole harbour on the west, to beyond Bourne- 

 mouth, and present escarpments averaging about 100 feet in height, composed of 

 yellow, white, orange and black sands and clays, crowned with fir-trees or pine 

 woods.' 



Mr. Gardner places these Bournemouth beds in the Middle Bagshots, drawing 

 the line between these and the Lower Bagshots at the pipe-clay beds of Corfe, Stud- 

 land, and Alum Bay in tlie Isle of Wight. This line of division is drawn on account 

 of the great dissimilarity of the flora contained in each. The Bournemouth flora, 

 which is distinct from the older, or Alum Bay series, passes up into the so-called 



' Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. xxxviii. p. 1. 



