1858.] BROWN FIPESHIEE COAST. 59 



there is among them a decided predominance of undivided and entire- 

 edged leaves, with smooth (not wrinkled) and glossy siirface. 



6. The intermixture of abundant remains of Ferns with those of 

 Dicotyledonous plants is a characteristic of this leaf-bed. In the 

 plant-bearing deposits of the palaeozoic and secondary periods, the 

 Ferns are generally found unaccompanied by any trace of ordinary 

 {angiospermous) Dicotyledons ; in those of Tertiary age, this latter 

 class prevails, and Ferns are for the most part rare or wanting. The 

 intermixture of both classes is perfectly analogous to the existing 

 state of things in Madeii'a. The profusion of Ferns in the under- 

 growth of the forests of that island is well known to all who have 

 travelled there, and we should certainly expect their remains to be 

 preserved in any fossiliferous freshwater deposit that might be formed 

 in such a country. 



7. The leaf-bed of S. Jorge has undoubtedly preserved to u.s but a 

 very small fraction of the vegetation which at the time clothed the 

 island ; and a variety of causes, difficult to estimate, may have 

 influenced the proportions in which different kinds of plants were 

 preserved ; therefore it would hardly be safe to draw any conclu- 

 sions from the very small proportion of Monocotyledons, whether in 

 this collection or in that described by Professor Heer. This is, 

 however, a fact deserving of notice. It is not merely that the pro- 

 portion of distinct forms belonging to that class is extremely small, 

 but that their remains are extremely scarce. Now, Grasses and 

 CyperacecB would seem very likely plants to be preserved in any 

 freshwater deposit, as they so often grow near water, and their 

 leaves, from the quantity of silex they contain, seem well fitted to 

 resist decomposition. That the leaves of these plants may, in fact, 

 be preserved in a fossil state, is shown by the discovery of several 

 fossil kinds in the ITolasse of Switzerland. (See Gaudin and De la 

 Harpe.) It is, perhaps, worth notice, that the proportion of Cyperacece 

 in the existing Flora of Madeira appears to be remarkably small. 

 This cannot, however, be said of the Grasses. 



8. On the whole, I am disposed to conclude that the vegetation 

 of Madeira, at the time when the S. Jorge leaf -bed was formed, was, 

 though not absolutely identical with that now existing, yet not very 

 different from it. But such conclusions must be received with great 

 caution, considering the small extent of the deposit, and how im- 

 perfectly it is yet known. 



2. Oil a Section of a part of the Fifeshiee Coast. 

 By the Eev. Thomas Beoivn. 



(Communicated by Sir E. I. Murchison, V.P.G.S.) 

 [Abridged.] 



This section of the Carboniferous strata, as exposed on the north- 

 em shore of the Firth of Forth, from Anstruther to Biu-ntisland, 



