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JOURNAL OF THE PLYMOUTH INSTITUTION. 
ledons, and 7 doubtfully identified. Of noteworthy species there 
were 1 Palm, 1 Sequoia — to which the name S. couttsice was given — 
1 Oak, 3 Figs, 1 Laurel, 3 Cinnamons, 2 Vines, and 1 Water 
Lily. 
The most prevalent plants were the conifer Sequoia couttsice 
and the fern Pecopteris lignitum ; " and their stems," says Professor 
Heer, " certainly contribute the greatest amount of lignite." Some 
of the rhizomes of the Pecopteris were of enormous size and 
weight. 
Of the 50 Bovey species, 19 were certainly, and 5 — of somewhat 
doubtful identification — were probably, species previously well 
known as having been found in Continental Europe, while the 
remaining 26 were new to science. 49 of the 50 were new to 
Britain. 
The 19 species just mentioned being characteristic of the era 
to which geologists have applied the term Miocene — that is to say, 
the era in which a greater percentage of the fossil Molluscs found 
in marine beds belonged to species now extinct than to species 
now living — the Bovey Lignitiferous beds were pronounced to be 
of Miocene age. 
The Miocene formation of Continental Europe being sometimes 
divided into five Stages — the (Eningian == the uppermost = the most 
recent of the five, the Helvetian, the Mayencian, the Aquitanian, 
and the Tongrian = the lowermost = the most ancient ; and it being 
found that, of the 1 9 species common to Bovey and the Continent, 
a greater number occurred on the Aquitanian than on any other of 
the Stages, while the second place was held by the Tongrian ; and, 
further, that of the species common to two or more of the Stages 
the Aquitanian surpassed all others in the number of localities in 
which they had been met with, Professor Heer pronounced the 
Lignitiferous beds of Bovey to be of Lower, not Lowest, Miocene 
age. It has been recently suggested, however, that, instead of the 
Miocene, they belong to the Eocene, the next earlier, era. As it 
may be doubted whether this is anything more than a question of 
Classification, it seems unnecessary to discuss it here. 
As there were no indications that the plants grew where the 
beds of Lignite occurred, and as the Water Lily afforded positive 
proof of fresh water, there seemed no doubt that in the Lower 
Miocene era the Bovey Basin was occupied by an inland Lake; and 
this harmonized better than any other hypothesis with the alterna- 
