J. Starkie Gardner — Mesozoic Angiosperms. 203 



cotyledonous fruit of some kind, and greatly regret that its precise 

 locality and horizon cannot be fixed with greater precision. 



The supposed Najadita, on the other hand, is quite certainly no 

 Angiosperm, but a Cryptogam. 



These remains, which must obviously have belonged to a fresh- 

 water plant, occur in some profusion in the fissile limestone at the 

 base of the Lias or top of the Rhastics in the neighbourhood of 

 Bristol. 1 The precise beds are called by the Eev. Mr. Brodie 

 " Estheria beds," from the quantity of Estheria Brodieana, var. (T. R. 

 Jones), which they contain, while the valves of a species of Cyclas 

 are also very abundant with them. 2 The plant remains were deter- 

 mined by Prof. Buckman to belong to the Monocotyledons, and 

 named by him Najadita on account of the relationship which he 

 believed they bore to the family of Najas or Pond-weeds, and were 

 described and figured in the Quarterly Journal of the Geological 

 Society, 1850, vol. vi. p. 415. The supposed early appearance of 

 this group of Monocotyledons has excited considerable interest, and 

 has frequently been quoted and referred to in works on palaeontology 

 and botany. Wishing to re-examine them, I communicated with the 

 Eev. P. B. Brodie, in whose cabinet many of the original specimens 

 are preserved, with the result that a number of them were placed 

 at my disposal. 



My first examination convinced me that far from being Monocoty- 

 ledons, they were cellular Cryptogams of some kind, the supposed 

 rectangular venation being nothing more than the cell walls of the 

 tissue forming the leaf-blades. I next took them to Manchester, 

 where Prof. Williamson kindly looked at them, and without a 

 moment's hesitation pronounced them to be the remains of cellular 

 plants. Since then Mr. Carrutbers has examined them, when Mr. 

 Ridley, who has charge of the Monocotyledons, and Mr. Murray, in 

 whose care the Cryptogamic section of the British Museum Herba- 

 rium is placed, were also invited to express their opinions, the result 

 being that all these botanists agreed in regarding them as Crypto- 

 gams resembling Fontinalis in habit. They in fact bear the strongest 

 possible resemblance to these fresh-water mosses, and without wish- 

 ing to place them definitely in the genus Fontinalis, it does appear 

 to me to be useless to seek further among existing plants for their 

 affinities. This group of fresh-water mosses has not previously 

 been included in any fossil flora, and it would indicate a temperate 

 climate, thus corroborating the evidence of the insects associated 

 with it, and that the water was limpid, with a feeble current. I am 

 most pleased to be able to state that Mr. Brodie quite concurs in the 

 transfer of his specimens to the aquatic mosses. 3 



The Lilia, Bensonia, and other supposed Monocotyledons and 



1 Q.J.G.S. vol. vi. p. 415, 1850. 



2 Mr. Brodie informs me that he regards them as a junction hed between the two 

 formations. 



3 Mr. Brodie has since sent me a capsule from these beds, which appears to belong 

 to the same moss. 



