178 MR. C. EEID AXD ME. J. GEOYES OX THE [vol. Ixxvii^ 



though of late jears finds have been rare. Xo. 9 is also full of 

 small lenticular seams of sand, some of which are crowded with 

 fruits of CJtara. Several of these little seams have been washed, 

 and the following species have been found: — C. IVriglifii, C. vasi- 

 formis, C. lielicteres. C. toniata, and C. suhci/lindrica. Possibly 

 these little sandy lenticles in the cla^^s point to the washing- 

 together of the comparatively heavy Characeous fruits into shallow 

 channels during exceptional floods or storms, for the rest of Bed 9 

 suggests very tranquil deposition. 



Xo. 10, the ' Basement Seed-Bed ' including the ' Leaf-Bed,' is 

 noted by Tawney & Keeping as a variable series of deposits. At 

 the top is a carbonaceous clay Avith rootlets, below a lenticle of 

 lignite var^'ing from 9 inches in thickness on the east to 12 feet 

 where it crops out under the gravel at Long Mead End ; and 

 under this is some green clay with ironstone slabs penetrated b}^ 

 small roots. Recent exposures show it to be even moi'e variable 

 than is stated : for in one place it is strongly current-bedded ; in 

 another it is channelled, and shows a local development of seams 

 of grey calcareous loam, full of seeds of aquatic and terrestrial 

 plants. These ' seed-beds ' have lately been carefully searched for 

 their plants, which include several undescribed species ; but fruits 

 of Charophyta are comparatively rare, and, as is usual in carbon- 

 aceous deposits, tend to go to pieces. The species obtained were : — ■ 

 C. Wriglifii, G. ccelata var. haccata, C. vasiformis, C. fornata, 

 and C. suhcylindrica. The 'leaf-beds' on the same horizon, but 

 more conspicuously developed farther west, are full of fragments 

 of a pinnate-leaved palm, of a cinnamon, and of fronds of a tropical 

 fern, Clirysodium ; in them Charophyta do not occur in a deter- 

 minable state. 



Beds 11 to 13 were sampled, but yielded no Chara, and the 

 same was the case witli Bed 14 (the ' rolled bone-bed ' of Tawney 

 & Keeping). Above this comes Bed 15, a 7-foot mass of fine silty 

 sands, with thin loamy seams and conspicuous bands of Potamomya 

 and a few other brackish-water shells. The shells are inostl}^ 

 tender and fragile, and it was very difficult to preserve the Chara- 

 fruits found m the sand ; but, after some of the clay-partings had 

 been washed, two species were obtained. Bed 15 is evidently a 

 lagoon deposit of brackish-water origin ; it is the principal source 

 of the crocodile-remains. 



Bed 16 is a mass of green clay, with a conspicuous band of big 

 ironstone-nodules ; at its top is a seam of lignite. We do not 

 happen yet to have met with an}" of the thin seams full of 

 C ha ra -ivMii?,, which are usually to be found in claj^s of this 

 character ; and Bed 17 is so much more j)romising, that it was 

 thought better to devote the time available to its more thorough 

 investigation. 



Bed 17 is a conspicuous band of soft cream-coloured limestone, 

 varving from 3 to 7 inches in thickness, and occurring almost 

 exactly in the middle of the Lower Headon Series. Though so 



