1862.] HEER HEMPSTEAD PLANTS. 369 



the buried Oolitic fauna, should Mr. Beckles resume his explorations, 

 or another Beckles take his place ! 



The remote antiquity of the fossil as a mammalian genus must 

 alone invest the discussion of its affinities with an interest which 

 will prevent the question from resting in its present disputed state. 

 Other palaeontologists will examine the evidence, and give their 

 verdict. Mr. Beckles's specimens have long since passed out of 

 my hands; and I have deferred my rejoinder in the expec- 

 tation that they might ere now have found their way into some 

 public collection, where I could have again submitted them to ex- 

 amination and comparison ; but, as that has not yet taken place, I have 

 thought it full time to reply, lest my silence should be construed 

 into a tacit acquiescence in the carnivorous character attributed to 

 Plagiaulax, which I do not accept — nor the reasoning on which it 

 is founded. 



2. On Certain Fossil Plants from the Hempstead Beds of the Isle 

 OE Wight. By the Rev. 0. Heee, Ph.&M.D. With an Intro- 

 DrcTioN, by W. Pengellt, Esq., F.G.S. 



(Communicated by W. Pengelly, Esq., F.G-.S.) 



[Plate XVIII.] 



Introduction. 



Geologists are perhaps aware that not long since a systematic and 

 careful exploration was made of the deposit of lignite, clay, and 

 sand at Bovey Tracey in Devonshire, in the hope of determining its 

 age; that a large number of fossil plants, of various kinds, were 

 found, and aU submitted to the Eev. Dr. 0. Heer, Professor of Botany 

 at Zurich ; and that two papers, embodying the results of the inves- 

 tigation, were recently presented to the Eoyal Society. 



From Professor Heer's determinations, it appears that forty-nine 

 species of fossil plants occur in the Bovey beds, of which twenty-nine 

 are new to science, whilst the remaining twenty are well-known 

 Miocene forms of Continental Europe ; that, following the subdivi- 

 sion of the Miocene beds adopted by some geologists on the Continent, 

 sixteen of the twenty species occur in the Tongrian or lowest stage, 

 nineteen in the Aquitanian, twelve in the Mayencian, five in the 

 Helvetian, and eight in the Oeningian ; that those common to the 

 Aquitanian and any other stage are found, in almost every instance, 

 in a greater number of localities in the former than in the latter, and 

 in only one case (that of Vaccinium acheronticum, Ung.) in fewer ; 

 and that the only one of the twenty species {Celastrus psevdoilex, 

 Ett.) not found in the Aquitanian stage occurs in the Tongrian be- 

 low and the Mayencian above, but only in a single locality in each, 

 and may therefore be looked for, sooner or later, in the Aquitanian 

 also. Accordingly the Bovey deposit is considered to belong to this 

 stage of the Lower Miocene. 



