Notices of Memoirs — Thomas Beesley^s Geology of Banbury. 279 



in France most often convey the appearance. The first restricted 

 to the "watered places occupied only the bottoms of valleys, the 

 neighbourhood of waters, and the edges of the mouths of rivers. 

 Tough Ferns, of small and ordinary growth, monotonous in aspect, 

 often however generically distinct despite this monotony, together 

 with Cycads scarcely varying, and Conifers of full stature, compose 

 the group of sylvan flora, the details of which change more than 

 their fundamental structure as one passes from one stage to another. 



I will say little on the subject of Cycads, to which I purpose re- 

 turning later. The discovery of some of their organs of fructifica- 

 tion, the minute observation of their trunks, of their mode of growth, 

 and of the relative peculiarities of the development of their leaves, 

 will lead without doubt to a satisfactory solution of questions quite 

 as obscure as those which their determination raises. 



For the present we must believe that the Cycads of Jurassic 

 Europe are not directly allied to any of those now existing. The 

 living Cycads occupy, in small scattered groujDS, some Central Ame- 

 rica and the dependent islands, others Southern Africa, others again 

 the islands of India and Japan, or finally New Holland. Each one 

 of these regions, it must be remarked, possesses special genera of 

 Cycads. There is then nothing surprising in the fact that our con- 

 tinent has in times past possessed its own Cycads, represented by 

 genera peculiar to itself. 



The examination of the Conifers would carry us further still; 

 besides, their study is far from complete ; and it will be time, when 

 this has been done, to state the definite results. One must admit as 

 probable that in the Lias ambiguous types have entirely disap- 

 peared, the last continuations of the WalcJiia of Permian strata, of 

 Voltzia and Albertia of Keuper, and the first outlines of groups 

 which perfected themselves afterwards, and still occupy the earth ; 

 whilst in the Oolite the oldest Araucaria and Sequoia show them- 

 selves related to the true Cupressinites, more or less allied to the 

 existing Thuyiopsis, Betinospora, and Widdringtonia. They were with- 

 out doubt the only large trees of those past times, under whose shade 

 the other plants took shelter. The climatic conditions were still 

 far from what they have since become ; nothing resembling the 

 Zones disposed after the manner of latitudes then existed ; and a 

 sensibly equal heat stretched over every part of the globe. Never- 

 theless, it does not seem to follow from the examination of the indices 

 furnished by the plants, that the temperature of Europe would 

 at that time have been higher than that which countries situated 

 near the tropics now enjoy. An annual mean of 77° Fahr. suffices 

 to explain all the phenomena which the Jurassic vegetation displays. 



Sapokta. 



in. — A Sketch of the Geology of the Nbighbouehood of 



Banbury. By Thomas Beesley, F.C.S. 



Eead at the Annual Meeting of the Warwickshire Naturalists' and Archaeologists' 



Field Club, at Warwick, 5th March, 1872. 



THE district described by the author is that on either side of the 

 Eiver Cherwell, which rises twelve miles E.N.E. of Banbury, 



