48 ON THE STRUCTURE OP ANNULARIA AUSTRALIS, ' 



order, . . . The shales are impressed with Vertebraria, 

 Glossopteris, and Gangamopteris." As there is some resemblance 

 between Asterophyllites and the plant now under consideration, 

 it is not impossible that the latter may be here referred to. 



The specimens now exhibited are from the ever-productive 

 collection of Mr. John Waterhouse, M.A., Inspector of Schools, 

 by whom they were obtained in the new tunnel at Anvil Creek, 

 above the coal seam ; and enable me to figure a much more com- 

 plete specimen than that available to Prof. Feistmantel. The 

 first of these consists of a piece of shale covered with the leaf 

 whorls. From these can be selected two branches, three and 

 four inches long respectively, bearing leaf whorls in situ. In the 

 former there are four remaining, and in tlie latter six. The 

 whorls or verticels are on an average three-quarters of an inch 

 apart, and most of them are twelve-leaved, but one or two have 

 as many as twenty-four leaves. The leaves are elongately 

 lanceolate, and, so far as I can see, possess no other structure 

 beyond the midrib. An average length is from a half to ten- 

 sixteenths of an inch, and with moderately acute apices. In the 

 form and arrangement of the whorls our plant approaches A. 

 stellata, Schlotheim { = A. longifolia, Bi'ong.), but the number of 

 leaves to a verticil in the former is only about half the number 

 seen in the latter species. 



The second specimen consists only of the stems, one well- 

 marked example being six and a half inches long. In this length 

 the stem is twice bipinnate, the length between each articulation, 

 and in consequence of an internode, being two inches or there- 

 abouts. The length of the branches, so far as they are preserved, 

 is three and a quarter inches. The stem in its present compressed 

 form possesses a width of three-sixteenths of an inch, but at each 

 articulation broadens out to seven-sixteenths, or nearly half an 

 inch ; both it and the branches ai-e longitudinally striate, probably 

 representing during life delicate ridges separated by flutings. At 

 a few of the nodes or articulations are the remains of verticils 

 of leaves. 



