FLORA 



OF THE 



BEITISH EOCENE FORMATIONS. 



I. Flora of the Thanet Sand. 



Very little is known of the flora of this earliest Eocene Period of England, and there 

 is some doubt as to the exact age of even the few plant-remains which have been 

 described as belonging to it. 



In the second volume of Lindley and Hiitton's 'Eossil Flora,' 1833-5, is a figure^ of 

 a Cone, described as Zamia macrocephala, and in the third volume, another called Zamia 

 ovata"" These were supposed to be Cretaceous, but they are now known to be from the 

 Thanet Sands. One is from near Deal, the other from Eaversham. Additional material 

 having been discovered, these species were examined and redescribed by Carruthers, in 

 the ' Geological Magazine' for 1866,^ as Pinites macrocephalus and P. ovatus. In 1870 

 Carruthers read a paper^ on Osmmidites Dowheri, a fossil fern-stem from Flerne Bay, and 

 in 1872 Thiselton Dyer^ described fossil wood from the same locality. Coniferous wood 

 has also been found. Professor Morris informs me, at Richborough in Kent. 



II. Flora of the Woolwich and Reading Beds. 



The earliest notice of the occurrence of plants in these strata is to be found in 

 Webster's paper^ " On the Strata lying over the Chalk," published in 1814. To 

 Warburton belongs the credit of having first discovered the remains of fossil leaves at 

 Newhaven. They were mentioned in subsequent papers, and in 1817 Sowerby gave a 

 figure'^ of the prevailing leaf, which, he conjectured, might be near to Pkitamis orientalis. 

 Mantell in 1832*^ held the same opinion when he figured the same species with some 

 additional forms. 



In 1854, Prestwich figured and Hooker described a number of leaves and other 

 vegetable remains from Reading and from Counter Hill but Hooker declined to hazard 



1 PI. 125, p. 117. 



2 PL 226, p. 189. 



3 Vol. iii, Pis. 20, 21, p. 534. 



* ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. xxvi, p. 349, pis. 24 and 25 ; ' Geol. Mag.,' vol. ix, p. 52. 



5 ' Geol. Mag.,' vol. ix, p. 52. 



6 ' Trans. Geol. Soc.,' vol. ii, p. 191. 



7 'British Mineralogy,' vol. v, p. 185, pi. 500. 



8 Mantell, ' Geol. Sussex,' pi. 8, p. 262. 



9 ' Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc.,' vol. x, pp. 88 and 163, pi. 4. 



2 



