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XXXII.—Jurassic Plants from Cromarty and Sutherland, Scotland. By A. C. 
Seward, M.A., F.R.S., Professor of Botany, Cambridge ; and N. Bancroft, B.Sc., 
F.L.8., Newnham College, Cambridge. Communicated by Dr R. Kinston, F.R.S. 
(Plates I. and II. ; text-figs. 1-6.) 
(MS. received December 2, 1912. Read December 16, 1912. Issued separately February 19, 1913.) 
INTRODUCTION. 
In an account of the Jurassic flora of Sutherland, published in 1911,* it was stated 
that a few petrified specimens from Kathie Bay, Cromarty, and from Helmsdale on 
the coast of Sutherland, would be dealt with in a subsequent paper. One of the best 
preserved of them forms the subject of a recent communication to the Royal Society of 
London.t The majority of the specimens described in the following pages are from 
the Hugh Miller collection in the Royal Scottish Museum, Edinburgh. We take this 
opportunity of expressing our thanks to the Director of the Museum for the loan of the 
fossils, and for permission to have sections prepared for microscopical examination. 
For the loan of the section reproduced in Plate II. fig. 19 we are indebted to the 
generosity of Dr Kipsron. Some pieces of petrified wood from Helmsdale, in the 
possession of the Geological Survey of Scotland, were kindly submitted to us for 
examination by Dr Horne. ‘The specimen of Thinnfeldia scotica we owe to the 
courtesy of Dr Naruorst, by whom it was collected in 1883. 
The Eathie plants are preserved in weathered calcareous nodules which were no 
doubt picked up on the beach by Hucu Minter, by whom they were assigned to a 
Liassie horizon; but, as Professor Jupp has shown, there is no adequate reason for 
regarding the Cromarty fossils as different in age from the Kimeridgian plants from 
Culgower Bay, between Brora and Helmsdale.{ Several specimens of petrified wood 
from Helmsdale have been examined: some of these were collected by the late Dr 
Marcus Guny, others were sent to us by Dr Hornu, and a few pieces were obtained 
by one of us in 1910. The preservation of the material, though in some cases 
satisfactory, is frequently not sutticiently good to afford conclusive evidence as to 
systematic position. It is hoped that additional specimens may be obtained which will 
enable us to describe more species from the narrow strip of Jurassic strata which 
borders the Palzeozoic hills of Kast Sutherland. 
‘The preservation of the fossils with which we are now concerned is unfortunately 
far from satisfactory, and it is seldom possible to give more than an incomplete 
diagnosis of the species or to determine their affinities with confidence. The very 
small amount of petrified material available from Mesozoic strata is, however, an 
* SEWARD (11), p. 649. + SEWAKD (12). { SEwarp (11), p. 648. 
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