386 MR. CLEMENT REID ON PARADOXOCARPUS CARINATDS. 
with Zannichellia, I feel sure that the interior of the endocarp 
would preserve an impression, in some specimens at least, of the 
folded embryo. Of this I can find no trace in Paradoxocarpus, 
and the smooth inner surface seems to point to an anatropous seed 
and straight embryo, such as is found in Naias. One character in 
which Folliculites and Paradoxocarpus differ from the Naidacem, 
and seem to approach the Anacardiacese, is the presence of the 
caruncula, on which Dr. Potonie lays so much stress. This 
excrescence, unfortunately, is badly preserved in most of the 
Norfolk specimens, though present in many of them. But if 
Sir Joseph Hooker’s figure of the Bovey Tracey Folliculites is accurate 
the excrescence in that genus is an outgrowth of the funicle, and 
not of the seed, and cannot therefore agree with the caruncula of 
Anacardiacem. A long discussion by Professor Nehring and 
Dr. Potoni4 on the systematic position of Paradoxocarpus and its 
relation with Folliculites has appeared since this paper was read 
(‘ Sitzungs-Bericht d. Gesellschaft naturforschender Freunde zu 
Berlin,’ 1893, No. 2). The question is by no means settled, and 
it is singular that so little is known about these extremely abundant 
Tertiary plants. They seem all to have been aquatic or marsh 
forms. Paradoxocarpus carincdus appears to have flourished in 
peaty swamps, for its fruit have only been found in peaty 
deposits, and all the localities yield also recent marsh plants. In 
the lacustrine parts of the Cromer Forest-bed it is extremely 
rare ; and it is absent from the drifted material brought down by 
the great Newer Pliocene river. The fruit, therefore, can scarcely 
belong either to a truly aquatic species, or to a dry-soil tree over- 
hanging a river ; the plant probably lived in the marshy swamps 
where its remains are now found. 
