228 



Baron Ettingshausen. 



[Mar. 11, 



III. " Report on Phyto-Palseontolo^ical Investigations of the 

 Fossil Flora of Alum Bay." By Dr. Constantin Baron 

 Ettingshausen. Professor in the University of Graz, 

 Austria. Communicated by Professor Huxley, Sec. R.S. 

 Received March 4, 1880. 



The white clay of Alum Bay and the fossil plants included in it 

 have been long known. The introduction to the " Monograph on the 

 British Eocene Flora," Palseontographical Society, 1879, p. 12, gives a 

 detailed history of this locality. 



The first scientific investigation of the fossil plants of Alum Bay 

 were made by Dr. De la Harpe and Professor Oswald Heer, who 

 enumerated a Flora of about forty species, distributed in several 

 genera. 



I Lave devoted the winter 1879-80 to the investigation of this 

 Fossil Flora at the British Museum, and I have had under examination 

 for this purpose the fossil plants of Alum Bay collected by W. Stephen 

 Mitchell and Mr. H. Keeping, the collections of the Woodwardian 

 Museum at Cambridge, and those of the Museum of Practical Geology, 

 and the collection of Mr. John Starkie Gardner. 



The results of this investigation are as follow : — 



The Fossil Flora of Alum Bay contains at least 116 genera and 274 

 species, which are distributed into 63 families. Of these genera 3 

 belong to the Thallophyta, 2 to the Filices, 5 to the Gymnospermee, 

 6 to the Monocotyledons, 28 to the Apetalse, 15 to the Gamopetalae, 

 54 to the Dialypetalse, and 2 are indeterminable. 



A sub-tropical climate, at least, is indicated by many of the Ficus 

 species, and by the Artocarpese, Cinchonacea9, Sapotacea?, Ebenacese, 

 Biittneriaceae, Bombaceaa, Sapindaceee, Malpighiaceas, etc. 



The genera which are common to Alum Bay and Sheppey are : 

 *Callitris, *Cupressinites, Sequoia, *Cyperites, Smilax, *Sabal, 

 ^Aronium, *Quercus, Juglans, *Laurus, Nyssa, Proteoides, Cinchoni- 

 dium, Apocynophyllum, Sapotacites, *Diospyros, Symplocos, Mag- 

 nolia, *Nelumbium, *Hightea, Acer, *Sapindus, *Cupania, Eugenia, 

 *Eucalyptus, *Prunus, Amygdalus, *Podogonium, Leguminosites, 

 *Carpolithes. In the genera to which an asterisk is prefixed, are found 

 species common to Alum Bay and Sheppey. This great number of 

 genera, common to Alum Bay and Sheppey, seems to point to such a 

 close connexion between the two Floras, that it does not appear to me 

 to be advisable to distinguish the leaves of the one from the fruits of 

 the other, even though they cannot be absolutely connected, by separate 

 specific names. I find it is possible, by comparing the leaves and 

 fruits of their nearest living analogues, to unite them in many cases, 

 at least provisionally. For instance, I find that the leaves of one of 



