and figured {op. cit. 1907, figs. 119—121); but we were then unable to identify them. 

 The fruit of Actinidia is edible and somewhat like a gooseberry; hence the seeds are 

 probably scattered freely by birds. They are found at all four of the localities examined 

 in Limburg; but we have not yet seen them from the somewhat newer Cromerian 

 deposits. 



THEACEAE. 



STEWARTIA PSEUDO*CAMELLIA Maxim. 



PI. XIII, figs. 7-16. 



Perfect fruits (figs. 8 a, b, 9, 11 a, b) somewhat compressed, detached carpels 

 (figs. 12, 16.) and seeds (fig. 15) of this plant occur at Reuver and Swalmen, and frag* 

 ments have been found at Brunssum. We have illustrated fossil and recent fruits 

 (figs. 7, 10) side by side and can see no difference between them, when allowance is made 

 for crushing in the fossil specimens. The living plant is a native of China and Japan. 



GUTTIFERAE. 



HYPERICUM. 



The genus Hypericum is well represented in the Pliocene deposits of Limburg, 

 7 species having been found in the Teglian and 5 in the Reuverian, with only one 

 species common to the two stages. Two other species occur in the Cromerian ; but both 

 of these are living European forms. 



The genus now contains about 200 species, and there is great similarity in the 

 seeds, which are always minute and cylindrical. In many the seed* wall is so translucent 

 that lower layers of cells are seen through the superficial ones ; thus making the sur* 

 face sculpture appear more confused than it really is, and making comparison with the 

 fossil seeds very difficult. Before we could compare our fossils thoroughly it would 

 be necessary to carbonize, or otherwise render opaque, a specimen of each of the 200 

 living species of seeds. This is a task we have not been able to undertake, and as yet 

 we can only determine a few of our fossils. 



HYPERICUM cf. ASCYRON Linn. 

 PI. XIII, figs. 17, 18. 



Seed large cylindrical mucronate; testa rough, with 16 irregular rows of large 

 hexagonal pits elongate transversely. 



Length 1.4 mm., breadth 0.6 mm. Reuver, Swalmen. 



The rugosity of the seed and the marked transverse elongation of the surface cells 

 make this fossil unlike any species we have seen except H. Ascyron, a plant of Siberia 

 and Japan, and also of North America. With some seeds of this species in our collec* 



118 



