part 2] PREGLACIAL FLORAS FROM CASTLE EDEN. 105 



been determined generically, of which number 58 have been 

 traced with a considerable degree of certainty to their nearest living 

 .allies. 



II. Geology and Botany. 



In considering the geological aspects of the investigation, I wish 

 especially to emphasize that the study of Pliocene seeds is now 

 .available as an instrument by the use of which it is possible to 

 discriminate mixed strata, and to determine the geological age 

 when this is unknown. The first of these points will, I think, 

 become clear if I describe very shortly the course of this investi- 

 gation. 



In his first letter Dr. Trechmann said, : The deposit should 

 (I think) correspond with the Cromerian beds.' At the same time 

 Mr. A. S. Kennard, who had examined the mollusea from the same 

 deposit, suggested that the deposits were probably of the age which 

 he assigned to the mollusea, namely Ponder 1 s End (Late Glacial). 



A preliminary examination showed that the seeds which 1 then 

 received could be neither the one nor the other. They were older ; 

 for among them were extinct Reuverian species and many exotics. 

 As successive small samples reached me, collected as the state of 

 the foreshore served, this first conclusion was borne out. It was 

 •confirmed later by the discovery of the atlas vertebra of an elephant, 

 which was pronounced by Dr. C. W. Andrews to belong neither to 

 Elephas primigenius nor E. antiquus, but to be in all probability 

 that of E. meridionalis. 



The samples all showed certain characteristics ; all contained 

 extinct and exotic species, notably Chinese and North American 

 species ; all contained mosses ; and all were heavily pyritized ; there 

 were no bones, no shells, and no ostracods. Put among them came 

 one small sample containing only a few species, which proved to be 

 different. It showed no exotics; the 11 species found were all 

 British ; there was no moss, and the seeds were scarcely pyritized ; 

 besides, it contained small fish-bones, indeterminable shells, and 

 ■ostracods. The sample was sent with the others, without any 

 indication that it differed; but the label read 'Preglacial freshwater 

 clay with shells,' not merely ' Preglacial clay ' as did the others. 



Upon enquiry whether this sample might have come from the 

 clay from which the mollusea had been described, Dr. Trechmann, 

 .after mentioning the intimate manner in which the clays were 

 mixed, wrote : 



" The brown clay containing the majority of the seeds is evidently the 

 Teglian material, 1 and is devoid of shells. The material in the small bottle 

 was washed from rather similar clay near to it, but containing' (so far as I 

 remember) some shells and ostracods. The mass of the blue clay with shells 

 and ostracods which I presiime is newer than the Teg'lian clay contains none 

 •or very few seeds.' 



1 At this time I had given Dr. Trechmann to understand that I believed 

 the seeds to be approximately of Teglian age. 



I 2 



