Vol. 50.] OSSIFEROUS FISSURES NEA.lt IOIITHAM. 183 



Remarks on the Plants and Invertebrates. 



[Plants. — The stems of the Chara were in a state of calcic casts, 

 and at first were very puzzling, and thought to be small annelid- 

 tubes ; but when submitted to W. Carruthers, Esq., F.H.S., he at 

 once recognized their vegetable nature, and referred me to a collec- 

 tion of specimens in the Natural History Museum of the same 

 description. Upon submitting them to Mr. II. B. Newton, F.G.S., 

 he immediately identified them as similar to a large mass of Charce 

 from Northampton described in the Geological Magazine for 1868, 

 p. 563. On comparison of the specimens from the fissure with 

 these, their identity became at once established. In the latter 

 both nucules and globules are very plentiful in the entangled mass, 

 but in those from the fissure I have only once or twice recognized 

 the spiral structure of a nucule. Upon dissolving some of the stems 

 under the microscope Mr. E. M. Holmes, E.L.S., revealed sufficient 

 structure to assign them to Chara and not to Nitella. 



Throughout the whole of the deposit nuts in a good state of 

 preservation occurred. In the case of the acorns, the inside was a 

 black, spongy, carbonaceous cast, but the outside skins were fairly 

 well preserved. There are other vegetable remains which have not 

 yet been identified. 



At the back of the fissure exposed since the reading of the present 

 paper there is far more carbonaceous matter, and I hope to be able 

 to obtain more plants from it. 



Insects. — Recently I have obtained upwards of a hundred tiny 

 little globular bodies from "75 to 1 millim. in diameter, usually single, 

 but occasionally in clusters of three and four, which Mr. C. 0. 

 Waterhouse, F.Z.S., has identified as the galls of Cynips. To the 

 same gentleman 1 am also indebted for identifying the insects. To 

 Prof. T. Ilupert Jones, E.R.S., I am indebted for naming the 

 Ostracod. 



Mollusca. — Of these the most plentiful species is Hyalina cellaria, 

 which occurs all through the deposit ; I obtained considerably over 

 half a pint of specimens. The next in numbers is Hyalina alliaria ; 

 the whole of these are of a beautiful translucent pearly white, 

 similar to those in the Portland fissures ; there is not the slightest 

 trace of animal matter or coloration in them. The Helicidae come 

 next, Helix (Patula) rotundata topping the list, in which species, as 

 is usually the case in Pleistocene specimens, the colouring is still 

 visible. The same remarks apply to H. nemoralis and H. ericetorum. 

 The latter species was represented by only two or three specimens. 

 Succinea oblongata was fairly common, and reached a length of 

 17 millim. The Gyelostoma was represented by an apical fragment 

 of a spire. I also obtained several dozen niolluscan eggs of various 

 shapes and sizes, from 3 to 5 millim. in their major diameter; about 

 half were pierced, but the rest were not, and when broken open 

 showed no trace of any colouring. These have not yet been 

 determined. 



Vertigo minutissima calls for special notice, owing to its unusual 



