Jj^"-^'] CnAPUAf^, The PalcBozoic Flora. 143 



doubt as. to the plant origin of this form, and it has been 

 suggested by Rothpletz that it may be a sponge. However, 

 the branching liabit is more closely comparable to that of a 

 seaweed, and in well-preserved specimens there are no visible 

 pores as in a sponge, nor crypts which might suggest sites of 

 polypidoms referable to corals or hydrozoa. One of the slabs 

 with Bythotrephis from the Silurian of South Yarra, and now 

 in the National Museum, is thus referred to by W. Blandowski, 

 an early Government surveyor*: — "The specimens of 

 fucoidas here in question I found in tlie quarry near the gates 

 of the Botanical Gardens. . . My attention was drawn to 

 about a dozen iiat stones, laid by order of our gallant director 

 of the Botanical Gardens, Dr. Mueller, in the dirt, to assist the 

 ladies in crossing a muddy spot in the lower walk along the 

 banks of the Yarra. Our learned friend did not, I suppose, 

 anticipate the valuable fossil he thus caused to be exhibited." 

 This fossil has since been identified with the Trenton Limestone 

 species, B. tenuis, J. Hall.f 



Another probable fucoid, found in the glossy grey slates of 

 the Walhalla beds, is Confervites aciciilaris, Goppert, a Lower 

 De\"onian form in Germany ; this is accompanied by a Wenlockian 

 species of Bythotrephis — B. divaricata, Kidston.f These slates 

 of the Centennial mine in Gippsland also contain abundant 

 remains of the undoubted lycopodite, Haliserites, which is a 

 well-known plant in the Erian (Lower Devonian) of Canada, 

 the passage beds of the Scottish Devonian, and the Devonian 

 of Wassenbach, Germany. § 



The pellet-making alga, Girvanella, is again in evidence in 

 the Silurian (Yeringian) limestone of Lilydale and the Tyers 

 River, in Victoria, the rock at the former locality often re- 

 sembling an oolite in its granular appearance. 



The Devonian limestones bid fair, by continued research, 

 to yield many forms of calcareous algae. One interesting speci- 

 men which I have lately described from the Middle Devonian 

 of the Mitta Mitta River, Gippsland, is referred to Spharo- 

 codium, a genus in which the thallus forms a pellet like 

 Girvanella, and having dichotomously-branched, single-celled 

 filaments radiately arranged, the thallus usually being attached 

 to crinoid stems or fragments of shells. Benson has lately 

 discovered some limestone full of oolitic grains in the Tamworth 

 district, and these, like other typical oolites, probably owe their 

 origin to Girvanella-likQ plants. Associated with the Tamworth 

 oolite grains are some simple arenaceous foraminiferal tests. 



* "Trans. Phil. Inst. Vict.," vol. ii., pt. i., 1857, p. 145. 



t " Proc. R. Soc. Vict.," vol. xv., N.S., pt. ii., 1903, p. 104, pi. xvi., fig. i. 



J " Rec. Geol. Surv. Vict.," vol. iii., pt. 2, 1912, p. 231, pi. xxxviii. 



§ Hid., p. 231, pi. xxxvii. 



