206 Seward. — Notes on the Geological 
of Monocotyledons, and to endeavour as far as possible to 
arrive at some conclusion as to the value of the palaeonto- 
logical evidence. 
It is often assumed that monocotyledonous plants are older 
than Dicotyledons, and this assumption would seem to be 
supported by the facts of geological history. If, however, 
we examine more closely into the nature of the palaeonto- 
logical data, the conclusion is almost forced upon us that 
no undoubted and satisfactory monocotyledonous plant has 
so far been recorded from strata older than those in which 
typical Dicotyledons first occur 1 . To discuss in detail the 
numerous fossils described as Monocotyledons, would take 
us far beyond the limits of a single article ; it will suffice to 
refer more especially to some of the better-known earlier 
records, and to disregard for the present the undoubted 
representatives of this class discovered in the Upper Cretaceous 
and Tertiary rocks. 
In a paper on Mesozoic Angiosperms, contributed to the 
Geological Magazine in 1886 by Mr. Starkie Gardner 2 , 
numerous supposed genera of Monocotyledons are fully 
discussed, and the author is led to the conclusion that these 
plants may probably be traced back to Triassic, and certainly 
to the Oolitic rocks. He writes : ‘ The oldest definite Mono- 
cotyledons known are the well-marked Pandanaceous fruits 
from the Oolites 3 ,’ and quotes as examples the genus Podocarya 
from the Oolite of Charmouth, and Kaidacarpum from 
Inferior Oolite beds at Kingsthorpe, Northampton. The 
former was originally described and figured by Buckland 4 
and referred by him to the Pandanaceae. The specimens 
are unfortunately not available for re-examination, but an 
inspection of Buckland’s plates in the light of our present 
1 A. C. Seward, Proc. Phil. Soc., Cambridge, Vol. ix, 1896, p. 24. 
2 Geol. Mag. 1886, p. 193. 
3 Ibid. p. 198. 
4 Geology and Mineralogy considered with reference to Natural Theology, 
London, 1858, p. 466, PI. 84. Buckland writes that the generic name was 
suggested by Robert Brown, to whom he owed much of his information on the 
subject of the fossil. 
