part 3] CHAROPiiYTA or the lower headon beds. 179 



thin, it is eas}^ to find, for it makes a distinct ledge, and is the 

 only limestone now left in Hordle Cliffs. It crops out under 

 the gravel at Long Mead End, and sinking eastwards must descend 

 to the sea-level near the first ste]3S to the beach, though talus still 

 hides tliis part of its outcrop. The part of the cliff in which this 

 limestone appears, after being for several years much obscured by 

 talus, has lately been much better exj)osecl. The limestone is full 

 of Limncjea and Planorhis, and seems to be purely of freshwater 

 origin. At its hardest it is a soft stone, and much of it is so 

 marly as to go to pieces if dried and then placed in water. It is 

 full of fruits of Chara, and has yielded a more varied Charophj'te 

 flora than any other of the Headon Beds. This is partly due to its 

 real productiveness, partly to the much greater attention paid to 

 it when its productiveness Avas discovered. 



The best pieces to select for washing in this limestone are the 

 fairly hard lumps in which the mollusca are not much distorted, 

 for the more marly and shaly parts will not bear washing without 

 the fossils going to pieces. Though the bed only crops out for a 

 short distance, it is well to take a number of samples, for some 

 of the species of Gliara-ixmi^ drift into little pockets or nests, 

 and have only been found at a single spot. In addition to the 

 fruits, fragments of stems and branchlets belonging to several 

 species have been found. Most of the Lower Headon Charophyta 

 occur in this bed ; but its flora is not quite so exceptionally rich as 

 would at first appear, for some of its species are of extreme rarity, 

 and have only been found through long-continued search. Only 

 two of the fruits that we have named, occurring fairly commonly 

 in the limestone, have not been found in any of the other beds — 

 the exceedingly minute Tolypella i^arvula, and Gliara jpolita 

 With the latter fruit possibly may be associated the slender solidly- 

 calcified stems and branchlets found in the same deposit (t^q^e A), 

 though at present we cannot definitely associate any of the fruits 

 with their corresponding vegetative parts. 



The list of Charoph3^ta found in the limestone is as follows :— 

 O. JVriglitii^ C. ccelata, with vars. hicincta and haccata^ C. vasi- 

 f or mis, C. polita, C. strohilocarpa and var. elJipsoidea, C. fiir- 

 hiuata, and Tolypella parvula ; but, as several of the most peculiar 

 forms are only represented by very few specimens, this list is 

 probably by no means complete. 



The next 14 or 15 feet of strata (Beds 18 to 27 ?) consist mainly 

 of clays, not at present well seen, and therefore not thoroughly 

 searched. They form a gentler slope above the ledge of limestone, 

 and lead up to another white band, this one consisting of highly 

 calcareous shelly sand, nowhere hardened into stone. This white 

 band, only a few inches thick, is seen in the upper part of the cliff, 

 just under the gravel, nearly opposite Hordle House ; but it can 

 best be examined where it caps the landslip at the to]D of the 

 undercliff immediately below. It can be reached l)y descending the 

 westernmost ladder, and then walking a sliort distance westwards 



