1848.] MANTELL ON ORGANIC REMAINS IN THE WEALDEN. 3? 



Somersetshire, where it occupies the same relative position, retains 

 the same mineralogical character, and yields identical fossils. As 

 might be expected, however, in another and more distant portion of 

 the series, there are some genera and several species which have not 

 yet been found in Gloucestershire : these will, I hope, shortly be de- 

 scribed by Mr. Moore of Ilminster, their discoverer, whose fine local 

 collection and zealous labours have already brought to light many 

 interesting palseontological and strategraphical facts of novelty and 

 value. 



June 14, 1848. 



The following communications were read : — 



1 . A brief Notice of Organic Remains recently discovered in the 

 Wealden Formation. By Gideon Algernon Mantell, Esq., 

 LL.D., F.R.S., F.L.S., Vice-President of the Geological Society. 



As our knowledge of the zoology and botany of the islands and con- 

 tinents that flourished during the formation of the secondary strata, 

 can only be extended by a diligent examination of the organic remains 

 that may be discovered from time to time, it appears to me desirable 

 occasionally to record, however briefly, the additions made to the 

 fossil fauna and flora of the Wealden, in the hope of ultimately ac- 

 quiring data that will afford a satisfactory elucidation of that remark- 

 able geological epoch, "T%e Age of Reptiles;^' — in which the verte- 

 brated animals that inhabited the land, the air, and the waters, were, 

 with the exception of fishes, almost exclusively of the reptilian type 

 of organization. I therefore submit to the Society the following con- 

 cise account of the Wealden fossils that have either come under my 

 immediate notice, or of which I have received information from my 

 correspondents, since my last communication on this subject. 



Flora of the Wealden. — The additions to the Wealden flora from 

 my own researches consist only of a few more instructive examples of 

 Clathraria and Endogenites than any previously obtained. Speci- 

 mens of the stem of Clathraria Lyellii, bearing the characteristic 

 cicatrices formed by the attachment and subsequent separation of the 

 petioles or leaf-stalks, have been found at Hastings, at Brook Point 

 in the Isle of Wight, and in the Ridgway cutting near Weymouth. 

 A water-worn fragment of a stem of Clathraria, which I picked up 

 on the sea-shore at Brook Bay, was so much indurated as to render 

 it probable that the internal organization of the original was preserved ; 

 but sliced and polished sections made in various directions, when 

 examined under the microscope, only presented such a general indi- 

 cation of the structure as to enable our eminent botanist. Dr. Robert 

 Brown, to pronounce that the essential characters of the Cycadeacece 

 were present, but no close affinity to any known recent genera could 

 be detected. 



