10S MRS. E. M. HEID ON TWO [vol. lxxvi, 



seeds would clash with his determination of the elephant. In 

 reply, he wrote as follows : — 



' The only elephant-remains that I had from Castle Eden consisted of part 

 of an atlas vertebra. This, I was able to convince myself, was not that of 

 E. primigenius or E. antiquus ; in fact, it nearly resembled that of E. meridio- 

 nalis. This determination can, of course, be only approximate. To be sure 

 of the species one must see the molar teeth. It is quite possible that some 

 older form, perhaps ancestral to E. meridionalis, may have had a quite similar 

 atlas vertebra. I do not think that E. meridionalis itself occurs before the 

 Upper Pliocene ; but that need not worry you, as the determination in this case 

 is too uncertain.' 



The Pliocene age of the deposit has heen confirmed by the report 

 on the insect-remains, Avhich were examined by M. P. Lesne. The 

 remains were found intermingled with the seeds, and are, therefore, 

 strictly contemporaneous. The short preliminary report and list 

 sent by M. Lesne are given at the end of this section, before the 

 full discussion of the floras. 



In presence of these facts it seems probable that the clay from 

 which the greater number of the Castle-Eden seeds was obtained 

 belongs to the middle of the Middle Pliocene, and that from 

 which the smaller number was obtained, to the top of the Pliocene, 

 being rather later than the Cromerian, when the climate was very 

 similar to what it is now. 



In considering the character of the two floras I will first deal 

 with the older, for it is the more important. As at present known, 

 it consists of 114 species. The number is comparable with those 

 known from the Teglian and Cromerian, from which 112 and 151 

 species respectively have been distinguished ; but a difference in 

 the amounts of material compared must be noted. Whereas for 

 the Teglian and Cromerian investigations quite 2 cwt. of material 

 was washed, for the Castle-Eden investigation (so Dr. Trechmann 

 tells me) not more than 10 lbs. of clay was washed, or about a 

 twentieth of the amount. It is evident, therefore, that at Castle 

 Eden we are dealing with a flora much richer in species than 

 either of the other two. This fact in itself would indicate an 

 earlier age for the deposit, for the farther we go back in Pliocene 

 time the richer does the flora of Western Europe become. 



The flora differs in one respect from that of any other Pliocene 

 deposit that I have examined : namely, in the remarkable scarcity 

 of the seeds of water-plants. It is true that the seeds of many 

 aquatic species occur, but they are represented bj" very few indi- 

 viduals ; frequently by not more than one or two. Usually the 

 seeds of such species are quite embarrassing in their profusion, so 

 that one has to clear them away before it is possible to proceed 

 with the examination of the rest. 



In the Castle-Eden flora the commonest species is Potent ill a 

 argemtea, essentially a plant of dry gravelly banks ; the next 

 commonest is a species of Erica, closely allied to E. vagans, two 

 species of Ranunculus, not aquatic, and an extinct Melissa, 

 probably a woodland plant. Other species showing a dry-bank 

 habitat are an Alliaria, a gentian allied to G. cruciata (a chalk 



