Yol. 6$.~] OF THE INFERIOR OOLITE OF BRORA. 377 



general characters of the plant-bearing beds have been compared. 

 Prof. Judd (op. cit. p. 102) says : 



' Large masses of wood, sometimes preserved as jet, and at other times pre- 

 senting only hollow casts, abound in these sandstones ; and occasionally vertical 

 plant-markings, like those of the Lower Oolite in England, are also found. . . . 

 The general resemblance of all these strata of the ai-enaceous type to those of 

 the Lower Oolites of the Yorkshire coast is very striking.' 



He goes on to point out that the whole series represents periods 

 ranging from the Lower Lias to the Upper Oolite. 

 " Apart from the palseobotanical interest of the subject, it is worth 

 investigating the Inferior-Oolite beds in order to ascertain whether 

 the close similarity in physical characters between them and the 

 Yorkshire series holds good in detail when we come to the flora. 

 General geological work has shown that the districts at present 

 constituting England, Northern France, and Western Germany were 

 included in the Jurassic and Neocomian Periods within a single 

 marine province. As Prof. Judd remarks (op. cit. p. 100) : 



' This, in turn, has led to the recognition and study of the minor palseontological 

 features which characterized the several subdivisions of that sea, and, in a 

 much less degree (owing to the paucity of the evidence), of the several land- 

 areas which bounded them.' 



Fragmentary though they be, the plants about to be described add 

 something to the evidence from the land-area of that period. 



The bed in which these plants were found was a thin shale-band 

 cropping out below high-tide level on the coast, about a mile and a 

 quarter due south of Brora. According to Prof. Judd's mapping, 

 this little reef would come well within the boundary of the Lower 

 Oolites, though from the more recent Geological-Survey 1-inch map 

 (Sheet 103, Golspie) it appears to come in the position of the Middle 

 Oolites. Without a more complete and elaborate examination of 

 these shore-deposits than could be carried out at the time, it could not 

 be determined whether the stratum really belonged to the Middle 

 Oolites, or whether it was one of the Inferior- Oolite beds lying on 

 the seaward side of a Middle-Oolite reef which was too small and 

 unimportant to be represented on a 1-inch map. The latter 

 explanation is in harmony with the dip of the beds and the manner 

 in which they recur along the shore ; and as, in addition, the flora is 

 so strikingly like that of the Inferior Oolites of Yorkshire, it is the 

 View which I hold. The plant-bed formed a band 2 or 3 inches 

 thick, particularly rich in plant-impressions, in a rather barren 

 grey shale, which weathered to a rich brownish-orange colour. 

 Throughout the foot or so of thickness of this shale were small and 

 very imperfect fragments of plants, but only in the band a couple 

 of inches thick were they sufficiently well preserved to be identified. 

 The visible outcrop was but a few yards in extent ; and, as the bed 

 was so thin, it was practically worked out while collecting from it, 

 and so it may not be easy for another investigator to get many 

 specimens. The entire collection from which the present notes are 

 written is in the Manchester Museum, and is therefore available 



Q. J. G. S. No. 251. 2 d 



