GGO ox A SPECIES OF BUACIIYPHTLLrir, 



Beaciitphyllum CRASSUir, /'an var B. mammilare ?) 



Plant robust, thick, stem and branches repeatedly dicliotomous. 

 Leaves tliick and fleshy, densely crowded, homodromoiis, short, 

 broad, obtuse, conspicuously keeled, erect, and closely imbricate, 

 slightly spreading. Branches and branchlets very little narrower 

 than the parent stem and o£ equal width to the summit. All 

 portions of the plant conspicuously curved. Three leaves visible 

 in each spiral : about three rows in a centimetre. Length o£ 

 leaves from 2 to 3 mill, breadth from 5 to G mill. Diam. of 

 cauline stem at widest part 10 mill., of branchlets 8 mill. Length 

 oE shortest 18 mill. Longest diameter of plant 150 mill. : gi'eatest 

 width 105 mill., in which there are 13 bifurcations. 



Amongst the fragments imbedded around the plant there are 

 many portions of much narrower dimensions covered with rliom- 

 boidal depressions like a Leindodendron. These are branclies 

 from whicli the leaves have been shed. They are about 30 mill, 

 long, and 2 mill, wide, covered with lozenge-shaped depressions 

 with a raised margin, of which two are exposed in each internode 

 or spiral. They are also dichotomous and seem to proceed from 

 the ends of the branches ; some of them are straight and some 

 curved, and they abound round the stems. 



This very beautiful fossil which, is so excellently preserved and 

 so complete in its details resembles very closely in general habit 

 the well-known B. mammillare, Brong., which is widely spread 

 in Oolitic deposits of France, and Wiltshire, Oxford, and Yorkshire 

 in England. But this fossil differs from every other known form 

 in the thickness and shape of the leaves, and the continuous 

 branching without much, diminution of the diameter. In some 

 cases the result of the branching is to give rise to a slightly thicker 

 stem than the parent branch. Under the microscope also I find 

 that the leaves are covered with a very fine granulation and the 

 margins are slightly raised. The keel is sharp and raised, but 

 not visible on all the leaves, which easily separate from the stem 

 in the fossil, leaving a shapeless scar of brittle, shining coal. 



