Gardner 1 s Tropica I Forests of Hampshire. 
23 
In conclusion, may I venture to liope that before long some rules 
respecting stratigraphical nomenclature may be promulgated which 
may regulate in some way the issue of new names. It will surprise 
some of your readers when I say tbat I have lying before me a list 
of more tban four tbousand stratigraphical names. 
HOTICES OIF 1 IMIIEIMIOIIR-S- 
I. — The Tropical Fohests of Hampshire : Being the substance 
OF A LeCTÜRE DELIVERED IN CONNEXION WITH THE LOAN CoL- 
lection, South Kensington, by J. S. Gardner, F. G.S., 
Saturday. Dec. 2nd, 1876. 
“TINGLAND at tbe present time has a climate far from tropical, 
but the time to wbicb I refer was when tbe palm and spice- 
plants flourisbed bere, and when tbe climate may rigbtly be spoken 
of as tropical, not in a poetical or metapborical sense, but actually. 
Tbe data on which our inferences are based are the fossil leaves 
wbicb we find in the clays of the soutk of Hampshire. Out of tbe 
many tkousands obtained during many years, I bave selected some 
wbicb have been exbibited in tbe Loan Collection. Some bave also 
been brougkt in illustration of our subject to-nigkt. Collections of 
leaves from tbis spot and from Alum Bay bave also been made by 
Mr. W. S. Mitchell, M.A., and otbers, and are now preserved in tbe 
British Museum. 
It is the district immediately along tbe line east and west of 
Bournemouth which I have specially examined. Tbe beds wbicb 
occupy tbis area are of tbe age of the Lower Bagsbot. Above tbe 
Bagshot series we have the Bracklesham beds full of marine forme ; 
tbe Barton beds, also full of marine forms, but telling a tale of a 
different sea ; tbe Headon, Bembridge, and Hempstead series, witb 
many repetitions of marine and fresh-water conditions, indicative 
of long lapses of time. There is, too, tbe wbole Miocene period, 
of which we have no trace in tbis district, but wbicb we believe 
from Continental evidences was of vast duration. Then, too, there 
followed periods of immense lengtb, during wbicb England under- 
went its latest Glacial epocb ; after tbat tbe time during wbicb tbe 
River Yalley gravels and Brick-eartks were formed. Wkile, tk'ere- 
fore, we speak of tbese beds as almost the youngest of tbe geological 
series, they really belong, when measured in years, to periods of an 
incalculably remote past.” 
With the help of diagrams and pictures Mr. Gardner traced 
the series of beds from Corfe to Warekam, Poole, and Studland, 
and then back from Studland to the mouth of Poole Harbour, and 
along tbe shore past Branksome to Bournemouth, and on to 
Hengistbury Head, tbe physical features and general appearance 
of the country being described. The alternations of clays, sands, 
and pebble beds, as they appear in the cliffs, and the pipe-clay 
diggings, were especially referred to, and Mr. Gardner then con- 
tinued : — “ No Order of arrangement is at first apparent in these 
beds, but by traversing the sections many times and studying 
