CORRELATION OF tHE BOURNEMOUTH BEDS. 221 
This section varies considerably in different parts of the two 
chines; but the Nipadite-zone is constant in both. The thick sands 
of the upper series enclose no shingle here. No reliable dip inland 
can be obtained, as the bedding is somewhat confused; but in most 
of the faces running N.N.E., N.N.W., W.N.W. the beds appear 
horizontal, the principal dip appearing to be towards W.S.W. The 
horizon of the Nipadite-bed at the extremity of the chines is 42 feet 
above sea-level, top of lignitic sand 47 feet, top of white sand 85 feet, 
with a capping of about 20 feet yellow sand and gravel. At the 
entrance to the chine the Nipadite-bed is but 25 feet above sea, 
and the top of the lignitic sand 50 feet. The base of a fine palm- 
stem was found in sand 15 feet above sea-level, near the entrance to 
the second chine. The bark and woody structure are in perfect 
preservation, and the roots still entangle the white clay in which 
the tree was imbedded before it was washed, in Kocene times, from 
the older beds nearer to Poole. 
It is singular that the Nipadites, which are so abundant in the 
chines that after rains twenty or thirty may be collected in an hour, 
cannot be traced either east or west of the chines. I have met with 
them in only one other locality nearer Bournemouth, where they 
are comparatively rare. No specimen has the base preserved, all 
exhibiting the characteristic predisposition to dissolution*. 
The husks are mixed with masses of rounded and carbonized 
pellets of vegetable matter, occurring in layers, which have evidently 
been subjected to attrition by tidal water. It seems clear that they 
must have floated, or they would have heen pulverized, like the more 
solid remains with which they are mingled; their deposition in 
layers renders it probable that they were periodically stranded by 
the winds and in great numbers. 
Bowerbank, in his ‘ Fossil Fruits and Seeds from Sheppey,’ gives 
some curious particulars respecting the Mpadites found at Sheppey 
and the recent genus Mipa. The principal habitat of the latter 
appears to be near large rivers and in watery and marshy places 
where the soil is black mud or clay frequently covered with water. 
‘“‘ Tt is observed at the mouth of all the great and rapid rivers, and 
also in such places as are overflowed by the sea or by brackish 
water ; for this tree grows best in soil impregnated with salt.” 
The Bournemouth species most resembles V. crassus, Bow. They 
appeared to have completed germination, and the exhausted and 
hollow fruit is filled with white sand with little trace of vegetable 
matter. The pericarp is present, and the endocarp is sometimes 
preserved, but equally filled with the same sand. This want of 
variety in the vegetable remains shows that they were deposited 
near to where they grew; the variety of form at Sheppey indi- 
cating, on the contrary, an assemblage brought together from a large 
area. 
Returning to the cliffs: 220 yards to the west is Boscombe Chine, 
at the east corner of which is a small patch of hard greenish clay 
which may be designated the Dryandra-bed, as it is filled with tufts 
* See Bowerbank, ‘ History of Fossil Fruits of the London Clay,’ pp. 4, 7. 
