104 MRS. E. M. BEID ON TWO [vol. lxxvi, 



3. On Two Peeulacial Floeas from Castle Eden (County 

 Dubbam) By Mrs. Eleanob Maey Keid, B.Sc, F.L.S., 

 F.Gr.S. (Read March 24th, 1920.; 



[Plates VII-X.j 



I. Inteoduction. 



In September 1915, 1 and again in December 1918, ~ Dr. C. T. 

 Trecbmann described before this (Society Drifts underlying the 

 Boulder- Clay of the Durham coast, at Castle Eden. Some of the 

 Drift is found as the infilling of a number of fissures in the 

 Magnesian Limestone which here forms the bed-rock of the district, 

 the whole being overlain by the Boulder- Clay. The fissures vary 

 in width from 5 to 120 feet, the two with which I am here con- 

 cerned being described as No. 4 & No. 5 : of which the former is 

 27 feet, and the latter, the widest of all, 120 feet wide. Both are 

 exposed on the foreshore between tide-marks after the scouring of 

 the shore by gales, and are seen to run out seawards in a north-east 

 by east direction, approximately at right angles to the trend of the 

 coast, being lost under the sea. 



The infilling of the fissures is of a mixed character, and consists 

 of 



' various materials that were transported in front of the earliest ice- sheet that 

 advanced upon this part of the coast ; the direction of transport being from 

 the north-east. Besides angular fragments of red sandstone, marl, and 



Magnesian Limestone there occur clays of different colours, also masses 



of peaty wood and trunks of trees, which have been torn up from the present 

 area of the North Sea by the advancing ice- sheet, and thrust as glacial erratics 

 into the fissures.' 



Some of the clays contain seeds, and early in 1918 a few of these 

 seeds were sent to me for examination. From time to time, as the 

 state of the foreshore served to obtain it. I received more material. 



Most of the seeds are very heavily pyritized, some being entirely 

 preserved in pyrites ; and in spite of all the measures that could be 

 taken, many upon drying became distorted and burst, others became 

 covered with efflorescence, while yet others, to my great regret, 

 disintegrated and fell to pieces before I could photograph them. 3 

 In this way some of the most beautiful specimens were lost, while 

 others became almost unrecognizable. 



Including 9 species of mosses, 114 species of plants have been 

 distinguished. No less than 89 species of flowering plants have 



1 ' The Scandinavian Drift of the Durham Coast, etc' Q. J. G. S. vol. lxsi 

 (1915) pp. 53-82 & pi. viii. 



2 ' On a Deposit of Interglacial Loess & some Transported Preglacial Fresh- 

 water Clays on the Durham Coast ' Q. J. G. S. vol. lxxv (1919-20)pp. 173-201, 

 figs. 



3 Under a grant from the Royal Society, which has enabled me to obtain 

 the services of Miss D. Minn, I am now able to carry out this work. 



