20 Mr. J. Starkie Gardner. Fossil Plants and the [Dec. 18, 



others, unless the great size of the leaf forms so favourable a cleavage 

 plane that no smaller leaves get exposed. The leaf is cordate, imper- 

 fectly lobed, serrate, with much the same venation and texture as the 

 Lime or the Mulberry. It is so large that no perfect specimen has 

 yet been obtained, though there need be no difficulty in doing so. The 

 loaf varies from imperfectly cordate to trilobed. It is the Platanites 

 hebridicus of Edward Forbes, and Platanus aceroides, according to 

 Heer, but many species seem included under the latter name, only 

 some among them belonging truly to Platanus. The Mull leaf is quite 

 unlike Flatanus, and of altogether different texture. The prevailing 

 and almost the only leaf in the lower half of the bed is that figured 

 as Bhamnites by Forbes. It is an oblong leaf, with simple margin and 

 feather veined, varying in length from 1 to 3 inches, and could hardly 

 be determined without some further clue. There are also leaves known 

 as Corylus Macquarrii, also found at Lough Neagh, a leaf like a Myrtle, 

 another Greenland leaf known as Corylus possedentatus, an ovate leaf, 

 probably Gornus liyperlorea, with, seven mid-ribs, and two or three 

 other indeterminable fragments. 



A remai-kable, but not singular, fact about these floras is the great 

 differences between the appearance and composition of the several 

 groups of plants from Ballypalady, Glenarm, and Ballintoy. Dismiss- 

 ing the latter, which merely contains small leaves of MacClintochia 

 and a hazel-like leaf, we notice that the remaining two present a very 

 strong contrast in point of the relative luxuriance of growth of the 

 plants contained in them. The Glenarm plants were large leafy trees 

 and shrubs, while the Ballypalady leaves are much smaller, and a large 

 proportion of the plants are coniferous. They possess, however, 

 enough species in common to establish their relative synchrony, and 

 they are practically on the same horizon : but these very species have 

 quite a different aspect from the two localities, the Cryptomeria fruit 

 and foliage especially being dense and luxuriant from the one, and 

 poor and starved from the other. Moreover, the Pines and Cypress, 

 so abundant at Ballypalady, are completely absent from Glenarm. 

 The differences are in fact just such as a great discrepancy in the 

 altitude of the stations might produce, but in view of the fact that 

 both sets of beds were in all probability deposited in one river channel, 

 and of the horizontality of the Basalt flows, no such considerable 

 difference of level could be possible in so short a distance. The rela- 

 tive luxuriance at Glenarm must therefore have been due to a shel- 

 tered aspect, soil, and other favourable conditions, and the possibility 

 of such causes modifying to an extent where resemblance almost 

 ceases, two floras that are contemporaneous, and comprise many of the 

 same species, and within a few miles of each other, teaches what 

 excessive caution we should use in drawing inferences from fossil 

 plants. These three floras, which are below the horizon of the 



