REVIEWS. 73 



A plant referred by the late Professor Forbes to the genus Lepidodendron, 

 was found by the Government surveyors in the upper sandstone beds of 

 Kiltorcan, near Knocktopher, a specimen of which is figured in Sir Charles 

 Lyell's "Manual of Geology" (fifth edition, p. 418). This plant appears 

 to be identical with the Lepidodendron minutum found in the carboniferous 

 slate of Tallow-bridge, by Mr. Griffith. May not the " apparent feni, with 

 kidney-shaped leaflets," of Dr. Fleming be the Cyclopteris Hibernica of 

 Professor Forbes ? 



" Above this middle formation lies the upper old red sandstone, with its pecu- 

 liar group of organisms, chiefly fishes. And of it, too, much remains to be known. 

 Save that it has not yet produced a Coccosteus a genus which seems restricted to 

 the oldest ichthyic group of the system its fishes more resemble those of the 

 lower than of the middle old red. It has its three species of Pterichthys, its 

 Diplopterus,Sin& apparently its Dipterus ; and its Celacanths, chiefly of the Holop- 

 tychian genus, represent, not inadequately, the Celacanths of the genera Asterolepis 

 and Glyptolepis, which occur chiefly, though not exclusively, in the lower forma- 

 tion. The two formations appear, however, to have no species in common." 



The absence of Coccosteus from the upper red sandstones of Scotland, 

 is probably due only to its rarity, as this genus, associated with Dendrodus, 

 has been found in the corresponding beds in Ireland. 



" I must mention, ere concluding this part of my subject, a curious fact connected 

 with the flora of the formation. When visiting, last spring, the Museum of Eco- 

 nomic Geology, in Jermyn-street, under the friendly guidance of the late Professor 

 Edward Forbes, he pointed out to me an interesting group of plants, in a fine state 

 of keeping, which had been derived from the old red sandstone of Ireland. The 

 genera seemed identical with those of the coal measures, but all the species were 

 different. I marked, among the others, an elegant Cyclopteris {Cyclopteris Hi- 

 bernica}, of which Sir Roderick Murchison figures a single pinna in his recently pub- 

 lished ' Siluria.' The professor also introduced me to the only ichthyic organism that 

 had been found in the Irish deposit, with the plants, a ganoidal fish, apparently a 

 Celacanth, and very much of the type of those of the upper formation, though I 

 failed to identify the species with any of those already known. Professor Forbes, 

 in return, visited my collection here only a few weeks ago ; and in a fern of this 

 upper deposit, laid open by our ingenious member, Mr. John Stewart, in Preston- 

 haugh quarry, near Dunse, he recognised his Irish Cyclopteris. As Mr. Stewart 

 found the Scotch specimen associated with plates of Pterichthys major and scales of 

 Holoptychius Nobilissimus two of the most characteristic ichthyolites of the upper 

 formation there can be no hesitation in assigning to it its place in the scale ; and, 

 of course, its position as an upper old red fossil in Scotland may be held to deter- 

 mine that of the interesting group to which it is found to belong on the Irish side of 

 the channel." 



An interesting field is here opened up for Scottish geologists in the flora 

 of their old red system, and it promises to connect the geology of that 

 system in Scotland with the corresponding groups of the south of Ireland. 

 The Irish Devonian beds are nearly destitute of fish remains, but contain 

 occasionally abundant traces of vegetation, the remains of which are more 

 or less well preserved, and it is not improbable that Scotch and Irish geo- 

 logists may ultimately be enabled to compare their old red systems by 



