II. 



ON A FOSSIL ALGA BELONGING TO THE 

 GENUS CAULERPA FROM THE OOLITE. 



ANY trustworthy evidence of the occurrence of Algae as fossil remains is 

 welcome, for the two reasons that the undoubted records of the preserva- 

 tion of such organisms are scanty, and that every one placed beyond doubt 

 enables us the better to deal with numerous cases hitherto uncertain, and 

 to judge of their claims to recognition. A large number of supposed 

 Algae have been described by Brongniart and other older writers under the 

 names of Chondrites, Confervites, Caulerpites, etc., and the validity of their 

 position has been disputed, as I believe, with success by botanists, who 

 have pointed out that such markings as are represented by these names 

 may well be the result of trails of animals and other casual impressions, or 

 the remains of other organisms, both plants and animals. Of the rights 

 of this discussion, which has been carried on mainly by Nathorst* and 

 Saporta,f I have no claim to judge other than that given by a working 

 knowledge of the forms of living Algae, but a recent examination of fossil 

 forms in the Geological Department of the British Museum has inclined 

 me to the point of view of Nathorst and those who with him reject the 

 validity of numerous recorded fossil Algae. No more eloquent testimony 

 could be sought against the views of Saporta than the plates of his own 

 memoir just cited. It is scarcely conceivable that a scientific inquirer 

 should not only accept such forms as many of those figured by Saporta, 

 but even use them in answer to a challenge. 



* Memoire sur quelques traces d'animaux sans vertlbres, efc., et de leur portee palceonto- 

 logique, Kongl. Svensk. Vetenskaps-Akad. Handl., Bd. 18, No. 7, 1881, contains biblio- 

 graphy ; Nouvelles observations sur des traces animaux ; Ibid, Bd. 21, No. 14, 1886. 



t A Propos dcs Algues fossiles par le Marquis de Saporta. Paris, G. Masson, 1882. 



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