198 J. Starkie Gardner — Mesozoic Angiosjierms. 



very perfect specimen of Williamsonia Morieri, beautifully preserved 

 in carbonate of lime, is from the Oxfordian of Calvados. In this 

 species only the upper half of the spadix, which is ovate instead of 

 globose, is covered with areolae, in consequence of the fibres of 

 which the areolate covering is formed being directed upwards 

 obliquely, instead of at right angles to the axis. This disposition 

 has fortunately enabled some of the ovules to be uncovered, and 

 shows that they are situated in the interior of the rosettes in which 

 the areolae are arranged, each one corresponding to an entire rosette. 

 Thus most of the pistils were unfertilized, supposing there were as 

 many pistils as areolae, and several of them became subsequently 

 united into syncarps. Each areola when magnified is polygonal 

 and convex, with the facets culminating in a small button, an 

 arrangement exactly similar to that of Pandanus fragrans. The 

 ovules or seeds were attached by the base, which was rounded, 

 while the other end was more pointed. 



The spadix was not a true inflorescence, or spike composed of a 

 number of flowers on one axis, as in the true Spadiciflorce, but a 

 branch with every leaf metamorphosed into carpels, and thus the 

 morphological equivalent of the gyncecium of the Magnolia. Conse- 

 quently it represents a single flower composed of an indefinite 

 number of unisexual elements, a structure of a kind that might 

 a priori have been expected to occur in an early type of pro-Angiosperm. 



Small buds, as well as the more mature organisms, are met with in 

 the Yorkshire Oolites. Other and distinct species have been met 

 with in the Oolites of India, 1 France, and some of the Baltic pro- 

 vinces, in some of these cases apart from any associated Cycadean 

 remains. 2 An organism found by Griffiths in the Grey Chalk 

 between Dover and Folkestone, in which the coaly substance of the 

 plant is preserved, was forwarded by me to Saporta, who pronounced 

 it without hesitation to be a Williamsonia. It would be interesting 

 to have this determination confirmed, as it strengthens the evidence 

 already in existence, tending to show that no great change took 

 place in the Flora of the British area, from the Jurassic to the Cre- 

 taceous, inclusive. 3 



The oldest definite Monocotyledons however are the well-marked 

 Fandanaceous fruits from the Oolites, which therefore take rank as 

 the earliest known Angiosperms. One of the most distinct of these 

 was figured by Buckland in 1836 from the Inferior Oolite of Char- 

 mouth, 4 to which, at B. Brown's suggestion, he gave the name 



1 Feistmantel lays great stress on their occurrence in the rocks of the Kajmahal 

 group as supporting his view that they are of J urassic age. There are two species 

 Besides the one considered identical with the Yorkshire W. gigas, Pal. Indica, Flora 

 of Each, p. 73, 1876. 



2 Williamson, On some Anomalous Oolitic and Palaeozoic Forms of Vegetation, 

 Proc. Eoy. Institution of Great Britain, Feh. 16, 1883. 



3 Saporta writes to me under date April 2nd, 1886, regarding this fossil : — " Je 

 crois bien que c'est un veritable Williamsonia, mais ecrase et meconnaissable et je 

 n'ose pas le decrire dans l'etat ou il est, ne sachant meme si ce ne serait pas quelque 

 type special." It appears, however, that it is to be figured in a forthcoming work. 



4 Geol. and Min. vol. i. p. 504 ; vol. ii. p. 101. Unger, Gen. et Spec. Plant. 

 Foss. p. 327. 



