BY THE REV. J. E. TENIS0N- WOODS, F.G.S., F.L.S. 71 



Prof. M'Coy * confirms the original observation of Brongniart, 

 and shows how the mistake of Lindley and Hutton had arisen. 

 There can be little doubt that the sheaths are as Brongniart 

 originally stated. But Prof. M'Coy also pointed out another 

 peculiarity in Phyllotheca, which was that the branches instead of 

 arising outside the sheath, as in Equisetum, arise from within, and 

 are therefore in a certain sense axillary. According to T. 

 Schrnalhausen's figures "j* of the Siberian forms, the branches 

 originated above the articulation of the stem. Prof. M'Coy also 

 thought that he perceived some remains of an infloresence like 

 Casuarina, but this has not been confirmed by any botanist. 



The relations of Phyllotheca are of the closest kind with 

 Equisetum, from which the genus cannot be said to differ in any 

 thing except the form of the leaf. Associated with Phyllotheca 

 sibirica are small radiating ribbed disks, like those previously 

 described in our own Equisetum rotiferum. The species is 

 distinguished by shorter and less renexed leaves than other species, 

 rendering the resemblances to Equisetum still closer. It was 

 described and figured by Prof. O. Heer, in 1876 and 1878, from 

 specimens collected in the Government of Irkutsk, Siberia, from 

 Jurassic beds. J 



The genus is most numerously and widely distributed in the 

 Jurassic beds, but it ranges down to the paleozoic formations, and 

 probably the oldest rocks in which it has been found are the 

 Newcastle beds. There are eleven species described, but of these 

 some are mere varieties. Thus the three Australian plants are but 

 two. There are two mentioned as from India, and seven from 

 Siberia, all from Jurassic beds, but in widely separated localities. 



The Indian specimens of Phyllotheca are confined to two species, 

 P. indica, Bunbury, and P. robusta, Feistmantel. The first is 

 from Nagpur, but the specimens are few and incomplete. 

 They are fragments of foliated stems and branches. These 



* Ann. of Nat. Hist. , Vol. XX., p 153. 



t Beitrage zur Juraflora Russlands, Mem. de lAcad. Imp. des Sciences 

 de St. Petersburg, 7th series, PI. XXVII., pp. 12, 46, 62. 

 Z See Nachtrage zur Juraflora von Irkutsk p. 4. Flora Floss, Arctica, vol. V. 



