Rev. S. Haughton orcCyclostigma, a new genus of Fossil Plants. 443 



These whorls all conform to the law laid down, and give rise to 

 diverging angles of 



JL 



1 4* 



In this natural order, 3 leaves in the whorl often occur, as 

 also in the Proteacese : the other numbers of leaves in the whorls 

 have been already met with ; and that of 2 in the whorl, or 

 opposite-leaved plants, is universal through the whole group of 

 Exogens. 



VII. Cyclostigmacese. 



The> fossil plants of the Yellow Sandstone of the co. Kilkenny 

 occur, as they do in other parts of Ireland, in the Sandstones 

 lying immediately under the great mass of the Carboniferous 

 Limestone, which constitutes the most important member of 

 our Irish fossiliferous rocks. 



They are found at Jerpoint, about a mile and a half south of 

 the Abbey, on the roadside, near the Corn-mill on the road to 

 Ballyhale, about 90 feet below the lowest bed of limestone, in 

 rocks composed of red, white, and blue limestone with Tribo- 

 liths formed of pink quartz rounded pebbles grooving the 

 hone-stone ; and above the plant-beds a remarkable white grit 

 conglomerate is found. The plant-beds, on the same geological 

 horizon, are also found in the railway cutting at Ballyhale. 



They are found, however, in the greatest abundance, and in 

 the best state of preservation, on the top of Kiltorcan Hill, near 

 the railway station of Ballyhale. I believe the plant-beds on the 

 summit of this hill to form an " outlier," and to occupy the 

 same geological position with respect to the limestone as the 

 beds at Jerpoint and those of the railway cutting. 



The fossil plants here found have never been described, except 

 casually : they consist of remains of a large Fern, called Cyclo- 

 pteris Hibernica by Prof. Forbes, associated with a large bivalve, 

 named by him Anodon Jukesii ; of undescribed dermal plates of 

 a cartilaginous fish, probably a species of Coccosteus; and of 

 numerous unknown plants closely allied to Lepidodendron, and 

 so named by Prof. Forbes and M. Brongniart, the latter of 

 whom has named a remarkable species, preserved in the Museum 

 of the Koyal Dublin Society, Lepidodendron Griffithii. Others 

 of these fossil plants have been named Knorria ; and a large un- 

 described group remains, to which I propose to give the name 

 Cyclostigma. 



CYCLOSTIGMACE^E. 



A natural order of fossil plants, found in the lowest beds 01 

 the Carboniferous system, part of the oldest flora known to have 



