MIDDLE EOCENE FLORAS. 



19 



the Eigs, in fact nearly, if not quite all the Dicotyledonous leaves are Identical, so 

 that the Bournemouth flora itself must be Miocene if that of Rovey be Miocene. 

 Were a minority of the plants, instead of a majority, common to both, it would not be 

 surprising, seeing that neighbouring patches at Bournemouth differ much more con- 

 siderably in their contents from each other than does the Bovey-Tracey flora, as a whole, 

 from that of Bournemouth ; and we could therefore hardly have expected to find, 

 especially taking into consideration the variety and richness of the Middle-Bagshot flora, 

 an exactly similar assemblage of plants so far removed from each other and growing, 

 perhaps, at a diff"erent level. The Bovey flora, according to Heer, bears the greatest 

 resemblance to that of Monosque among French Tertiary Floras, of whose Eocene age 

 I entertain no doubt, for it is the one bearing the greatest relationship to these Middle 

 Bagshot beds. The three small seeds which are supposed to link Bovey with Hempstead 

 are, in my opinion, insignificant, and, indeed, are not confined to that section of the 

 Eocene. The subject might be pursued further, but the progress of this work may be 

 le ft to show the correctness of my views respecting the age of these beds. 



When Heerwrote^ in 1861 it must be remembered that no Eocene floras of any extent 

 had been described, and scarcely any material existed for comparison, except what was of 

 Miocene age. The fossil flora of Bournemouth was a sealed book, and many Eocene floras 

 on the Continent were then thought to be Miocene, so that in making comparisons error 

 was certain to be introduced. He was also, no doubt, influenced by the Alum-Bay 

 plants, which hardly resemble those of Bovey, and probably somewhat by the precon- 

 ceived opinions of English geologists. It appears to me that in the then state of 

 knowledge regarding these Tertiary Floras he could scarcely avoid classing the Bovey 

 beds with the Miocene. 



As the specimens from Bovey-Tracey were described by Heer in the ' Philosophical 

 Transactions ' for 1862, it is not proposed to refer further to them except in so far as the 

 materials here worked up modify the views of the original describer. 



§ 3. The Upper-Bagshot Flora. — No plants whatever have been hitherto described 

 from beds of this age. I have extracted from some of the lignites at Barton fragments of 

 Fir-cones and indistinct seeds, and some similar remains are to be found in the Wood- 

 wardian Museum, Cambridge. 



VI. The Upper Eocene Floras. 



§ 1. The Headon Flora. — No plants have been recorded from the Headon beds, 

 except three species of Chara, Carpolithes ovuluvi, and Folliculites thalidroides." Palma- 



1 'Phil. Transact.,' 1862, part ii, published in 1863. 



2 Bristow, 'Mem. Geol. Surv.,' 1862. 



