116 PROF. A. C. SEWARD ON WEALDEN FLORAS. [March IQI3, 



For the last four years these French gentlemen had been staying 

 at the Jesuit College at Ore, Hastings, and had devoted nearly the 

 whole of their spare time to the collection of fossils from the 

 Hastings and Purbeck Beds. They had displayed an immense 

 amount of industry and perception, and had brought together a 

 most interesting and valuable collection. 



A chance meeting with them by the speaker had enabled him to 

 assist them in the determination of many of their specimens by 

 frequent reference to the British Museum, tq which Dr. A. Smith 

 Woodward had given every encouragement. The speaker was glad 

 to say that, at the conclusion of their visit to England, Fathers 

 Pelletier and Teilhard de Chardin had most generously allowed 

 Dr. Woodward to make a selection of any specimens which he wished 

 to have for the British Museum (Natural History). The remainder 

 of their specimens they presented to the Hastings Museum, which 

 contains a collection of fossil Wealden plants only second in 

 importance to the National collection, 



Mr. Dawson observed as to the fossil plants now described, that 

 it was rather remarkable to find side by side on one piece of 

 Wealden rock remains of fossil ferns, Matonidium and Hausmannia, 

 genera which have long ceased to exist in the Northern Hemisphere, 

 but are very closely allied to the modern Matonia and Dipteris 

 respectively, which now grow side by side on Mount Ophir in the 

 Malay Peninsula. The Author had very ably dealt with these 

 comparisons in his recent work, ' Links with the Past in the Plant 

 World.' 



Dr. W. F. Heme remarked that Father Teilhard de Chardin first 

 developed his geological enthusiasm in Egypt, and congratulated 

 British geology on his transference to England, as also on the fact 

 that his materials had been described by Prof. Seward. 



The President (Dr. A. Strahax) congratulated the Society on 

 having heard a brilliant exposition of a difficult and highly technical 

 subject. Bearing in mind the stratigraphical relationships of the 

 Wealden, he was relieved to hear that there were some plants which 

 served to distinguish that formation from the Jurassic. 



The Author expressed gratitude to the Fellows for their cordial 

 reception of his paper ; he thanked Mr. Dawson for the very great 

 assistance which he had rendered both personally and through 

 Father Pelletier and Father Teilhard de Chardin towards the 

 investigation of the Wealden Flora. He adduced some additional 

 statements in support of the view, with which he agreed, that in 

 many instances Southern countries are the refuges of Mesozoic types 

 which were gradually driven across the Equator. 



