J. Starlde Gardner 8^ G. F. Harris — The Gelinden Flora. 107 



Forest Bed is proved to be of Pre- Glacial age, because it is covered 

 by Glacial deposits, then certainly we can claim the remains found 

 in the Ffynnon Beuno Caves to be of Pre- Glacial age, since they 

 also were completely covered over by undoubted glacial deposits, and 

 the fact that the mammalian fauna of the Caverns would "lead one 

 to assign to it a Pleistocene " age is certainly no proof against such 

 a conclusion. 



Y. — On the Beds Containing the Gelinden Flora. 

 By J. Starkie Gardner, F.L.S., F.G.S. 



THE Gelinden Flora, described by Saporta and Marion (Mem. de 

 I'Acad. de Beige, t. 37 ; and Kevision de la Flore Heersienne 

 de Gelinden, ibid., t. 41), has assumed an immense impoi'tance owing 

 to the fact that it alone, among Tertiary fossil floras whose age is 

 definitely ascertained on stratigraphical and palasontological grounds, 

 contains certain remarkable types of leaves which are common to it, 

 to the inter-basaltic beds of Glenarm in Antrim, and to Atanekerdluk 

 in Greenland. Two of these are long lanceolate leaves, with three or 

 more parallel mid-ribs. The larger, called Daphnogene, is confined 

 in Greenland to the so-called Miocene at Atanekerdluk and to the 

 horizon from which the collections of McClintock, Why m per, Kobert 

 Brown, and Colomb were obtained ; but the smaller, McGlintoclda, 

 has been met with in the so-called Cretaceous as well. There is 

 some variety in the latter, the number of mid -ribs varying, and the 

 margin being either toothed or smooth. The McClintockia is also the 

 more common in Antrim, being equally found at Balliutoy and 

 Ballypalady. The venation is ver^^ peculiar, and appears to represent 

 an early type still preserved in phyllodes, bracts, and sepals, but 

 almost lost in true leaves, though a not dissimilar plan is to be found 

 in a few herbaceous plants such as the Plantain, Peony, etc. The 

 splendid specimens which I had the good fortune to find, after drain- 

 ing the disused mine at Glenarm, prove beyond doubt that they were 

 true deciduous leaves, with long and distinctly articulated foot-stalks. 

 The McGlintoclda was originally placed in the Proteacese by Heer, 

 but subsequently removed to the Urticeas, where both types un- 

 doubtedly belong. The Daphnogene in fact seems to almost still 

 exist in the Debugesia of the Himalayas. The presence of these 

 types in the Heersien alone, of all the innumerable stages of the 

 Tertiary in Europe which have yielded fossil plants, shows so far 

 that they are characteristic of one definite horizon only, and in the 

 absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is to this horizon and no 

 other that the floras of Antrim and Greenland containing these 

 plants must be referred. If palseontological evidence of such nature 

 is not to be accepted, when there is absolutely nothing to urge 

 against it, the basis of geology would be sapped and common-sense 

 rules ignored. 



The Gelinden plants are preserved in a fine white chalky lime- 

 stone. My friend, Mens. Th. Lefevre, of Brussels, was instrumental 

 in procuring me a fine series, now in the British Museum ; but as I 



