652 PROFESSOR A. C. SEWARD ON 



The specimens from the Inferior Oolite of Yorkshire on which Carruthers founded 

 the genus Beania were regarded by him as female Cycadean flowers.* It has also been 

 suggested that they may be seed-bearing shoots of a member of the Ginkgoales,t but 

 decisive evidence as to the affinity of Beania is still lacking. 



In the introduction to his paper on the Secondary rocks of Scotland, Professor Judd, 

 though mainly concerned with those on the north-east coast, refers to the Mesozoic 

 strata of the West, which have been sealed up under thousands of feet of Tertiary 

 volcanic rocks. J From these patches of Jurassic strata scattered through the Western 

 Isles, the only plant remains which have come under my notice are specimens of 

 petrified coniferous wood. The history of our knowledge of the Western beds in Eigg 

 and other islands has been given by Mr Harker in his paper on the geological structure 

 of the Sgiirr of Eigg.§ The species named by Lindley and Hutton Pinites eiggensis, 

 though one of the most familiar of plant-names, has not been thoroughly investigated 

 in recent years. Hugh Miller in The Cruise of the Betsey || speaks of the " gigantic 

 Scuir of Eigg" as resting " on the remains of a prostrate forest," a description which is 

 more picturesque than accurate. He believed the Eigg species to be identical with the 

 coniferous wood which was then found in great abundance and may still be collected 

 on the beach at Helmsdale ; this opinion was, however, not based on any thorough 

 anatomical examination. It would seem that the numerous specimens of Pinites 

 eiggensis in museum collections are probably pieces of a single trunk. Mr Harker 

 states that he was unable to learn from the published accounts, from the information of 

 residents, or from personal search, that wood has ever been discovered under the Sgiirr, 

 except at one locality at the southern base of the pitchstone where it was enclosed in 

 decomposed volcanic rock. The position of the log of wood is clearly shown in a 

 section published by Mr Harker. 1 In addition to Pinites eiggensis, the structure of 

 which I hope to describe on another occasion, some imperfectly preserved specimens, 

 examined at Mr Harker's request, from Camas Sgiotaig, Eigg, showed the arrangement 

 of pits on the radial walls of the tracheids characteristic of the Araucarise. ## In an 

 appendix on the palaeontology of Skye and Raasay to Mr Bryce's paper on the Jurassic 

 rocks of those islands, Mr Tate mentions the occurrence of " obscure Cycads and 

 Ferns " in Inferior Oolite beds,tt but no description of the fossils has been published. 

 Although, as Sir Archibald Geikie points out,J| Jurassic rocks play a much more 

 important part in the geology of the West, our knowledge of the Jurassic flora of 

 Scotland is based on the records obtained from the narrow strip of beds faulted against 

 the north-eastern edge of the Highlands. 



* Carruthers (69). t Seward (00), p. 275. 



: Judd (73), p. 99 ; see also Geikie (01), p. 140. § Harker (06) ; see also Harker (08). 



|| Miller (58), p. 32. IT Harker (06), p. 57, fig. 5. ** Ibid., p. 63. 



tt Tate (73), p. 346. ++ Geikie (01), p. 140. 



