INTROBrCTIOK. 



ENGLAND. 



Except for the important specimens of Bennettites from the 

 Lower Greensand, few Cretaceous plants have been described 

 from England. Some fragments are mentioned by Mantell 

 (1822 & 1844), and supposed fruits from the Chalk were 

 described in 1846, but their nature remains doubtful. Lindley 

 and Hutton (1833-1837) figured several species, principally 

 Gymnoapermic cones, of Gault and Greensand age, and some 

 of these have their internal anatomy petrified, though it has 

 not yet been described. Maidstone is an important locality, 

 the Greensand there having yielded a number of plants (see 

 Bensted, 1862, and Mackie, 1862 b). Carruthers (1865) made 

 known Caulopteris from the Upper Greensand, and also coniferous 

 fruits from various Cretaceous deposits, in 1866 a. 1866 b, 1868 

 & 1869. The genus Cycadeoidea from the Lower Greensand was 

 described by him in 1867, and he published a paper on Cyca- 

 dean stems in 1870. Further coniferous fruits were described 

 in 1871 and 1875. In Dixon's 'Geology of Sussex' Carruthers 

 gave a list of the Cretaceous plants (1878), and with Gardner 

 and others (1886) drew up the British Association Committee's 

 report on British Secondary plants. 



Williamson (1887) described a further specimen of Gymno- 

 spermic cone originally figured by Lindley and Hutton ; and in 

 1898 Barber gave a detailed account of a Gupressinoxylon with 

 the internal anatomy preserved from the Lower Greensand. 

 The iiora is actually much richer than these published papers 

 would lead one to expeot, as will be shown in vol. 2 of this 

 Catalogue. 



FKANCE. 



The Cretaceous Flora in France is also rather scattered and 

 fragmentary. Brongniart in 1849 described a few plants, and 

 Cornuel (1866) wrote on coniferous fruits of Neocomian age, 

 and published further studies on the subject in 1882. Crie, in 

 1877, 1884, 1890 & 1892, published papers dealing with the 

 Cretaceous Flora, the most important being that of 1892, 



Saporta in 1880 published on the Lower Cretaceous of Havre, 

 and Bertrand in 1883 described a new genus of Taxinean fossil 



