LIGN. 42.

FOSSIL FRUITS FROM THE ISLE OF SHEPPEY. (Mr. Bowerbank.)

Fig. 1 and 3.-Cucurmites variabilis: fig. 3, is a vertical section, showing the seeds. Lign. 43, fig. 6- nat.

3

2 and 8.-Petrophiloides Richardsoni :- nat. fig. 8, is a vertical section, showing the disposition of the seeds in the cells formed by the confluent scalesnat.

4.-Wetherellia variabilis: a section of the fruit, in which state it is called coffee-berry by the collectors- nat.

5 and 6.-Faboidea semicurvilinearis: fig. 5, side view

1

7.-Faboidea bifalcis: side view- nat.

9.-Nipadites lanceolatus: a, the seed; b, the shell, or

pericarp-nat.

10.-Nipadites cordiformis: a, the extremity of the seed, imbedded in the shell—' nat.

ว

6. Fruits allied to the Palm tribe. (Nipadites). Lign. 42, figs. 9 and 10.

7. Fruits of leguminous plants, differing from any known recent. Lign. 43, figs. 1, 2, 3, 4.

Fig. 1 and 2.-Zulinosprionites latus. 2. A section, showing the

receptacles for two seeds. —— nat.

3.-Leguminosites dimidiatus; side view.

nat.

-nat.

4.-Leguminosites subquadrangularis; side view.

5.-Cupanoides lobatus.

nat.

6.-Cucurmites variabilis. — nat.

7.-Mimosites Browniana; from Ossington, Suffolk.

A

seed-pod of an Acacia, or other plant of the Mimosa family. — nat.

8. Seeds, allied to the Amomum, or Cardamom tribe. Lign. 43, fig. 5.

9. Seeds of Cupressinites, or plants related to the Cypress.

10. Seeds resembling those of the Laburnum.

11. Seed-pod of a species of Acacia, or Mimosa. Lign. 43, fig. 7.—3 nat.

The most remarkable fruits in the above catalogue are those which, from their appearance when compressed, are commonly known by the name of

petrified figs" (Lign. 42, figs. 9, 10.). Some specimens attain a considerable size, and are from five to seven inches long. These fossils were referred to the Cocos by Mr. Parkinson, but Mr. Bowerbank has shown that they are nearly related to the genus NIPA; several species of which abound in the Molucca and Philippine Islands. The Nipa are low, shrub-like plants, having the general aspect of palms; they grow in marshy tracts, at the mouths of great rivers, particularly where the waters are brackish. They are allied to the cocoanut tribe, on the one hand, and to the screw-pine, or pandanus, on the other.

Mr. Bowerbank has also, by a microscopical examination of some stems from Sheppey, in which the vascular tissue was preserved, detected a species of Piper, or pepper-plant.

The masses of fossil wood found in the Isle of Sheppey, consist of portions of the stems of palms,

coniferæ, and dicotyledonous trees. Large waterworn fragments, perforated by teredines, and containing portions of their shelly tubes, are abundant, as at Bognor, Bracklesham, and most other localities of the London Clay. The tortuous channels made by the borers, are frequently lined or filled up with calcareous spar, of various shades of grey, blue, and amber colour, while the fibrous structure of the wood is of a deep brown, or light fawn; the surface of polished slabs of this fossil wood present, therefore, a beautiful figured appearance from the sections of the sparry tubes.*

LILIACEÆ. This family of endogenous plants comprises many of the most beautiful species; those with annual stems, as the lily, hyacinth, tulip, &c. are celebrated for the variety and splendour of their blossoms. Some of the arborescent forms, as the tulip-tree, attain a large size; but the flowers of this division are proportionably small. In a fossil state, stems, leaves, fruits, and even the imprints of the flowers, have been discovered. Among these are species related to Sagittaria (arrow - head), Smilax (bind-weed), and Convallaria (lily of the valley). Some liliaceous leaves have been found in the carboniferous strata, and may possibly belong to the same plants as the trigonal fruits we have

* Slabs of this kind are generally kept by the lapidaries at Bognor, Worthing, &c. and sold at 2s. or 2s. 6d. each.

referred to the palms. A few large stems, approaching in their external characters to the Yucca, or Dracena, occur in the coal, as previously noticed. The Stonesfield slate has yielded some examples of plants of this family; a beautiful stem from that deposit is figured by Count Sternberg (Flor. der Vorwelt, plate 30.). One of the most remarkable liliaceous plants of the British strata was discovered by myself, associated with bones of large reptiles, in Tilgate Forest, nearly thirty years since.* M. Brongniart considers it to be generically distinct from all known recent and fossil plants.

CLATHRARIA (latticed-stem).—Stem composed of an axis having the surface covered with reticulated fibres, and of a false bark formed by the union of the consolidated bases of the petioles, whose insertions are rhomboidal and transverse.

Of this plant (which I have named C. Lyellii), the trunk, and its axis, roots, leaves, and probably the fruit, have been discovered.† The external surface of the stem is covered with transverse, lozenge-shaped, elevated scars, separated by lateral depressions. In young specimens these scars are arched above, and angular below, and there is much

*It is described and figured in the Fossils of Tilgate Forest, Plates 1, 2, and 3.

+ A fine suite of specimens collected by me in Tilgate Forest is now in the British Museum.