80 ON THE FOSSIL FLORA OF THE COAL DEPOSITS OF AUSTRALIA, 



bulbs or tubers in chains of one, two, and three. But though 

 there is a general resemblance in the structure to the Vertebraria, 

 there is an almost identity of character between the same fossils 

 and ascertained roots of fossil Equisetaceoe. Thus in E. braunii, 

 as figured by Schimper, we find a series of short articulations with 

 parallel grooving very similar to some forms of Vertebraria. 



Regarding, therefore, these fossils as roots, it seems almost 

 useless to distinguish them with generic and specific names. Such 

 organs must resemble each other closely even where the species 

 are different. We have no evidence that Vertebraria indica and 

 Vertebraria australis, though so much alike, belonged even to the 

 same genus of plants. Nay it is extremely probable that they 

 did not, for among the common Equisetaceous plants in Indian 

 strata Schizoneura is associated with Vertebraria indica, while 

 Shizoneura is unknown in the Newcastle beds, and Vertebraria 

 australis is associated with Phyllotheca australis. 



I shall distinguish the Vertebraria common in the blue clay at 

 the Walloon Mines as V. equiseti, premising, of course, that I 

 believe it to be the rhizome of Equisetum rotiferum, nobis. 



Vertebraria equiseti. Plate, 1 ; fig, 3. Roots found in broad 

 finely striated masses, three or four inches long, with occasional 

 transverse divisions half an inch or so across. These root masses 

 have little or no carbonaceous matter amongst them. They seem 

 to be impressions of a mass of roots flattened out into the clay. 

 Three different kinds of roots can be distinguished — one is a 

 broad striated stem half an inch in diameter with transverse 

 divisions at irregular intervals. 2. A narrow cylindrical stem 

 with parallel striations and no diaphragmata. 3. Stems with a 

 central longitudinal division and irregular transverse dia- 

 phragmata, which occasionally correspond at each side of the 

 longitudinal line and occasionally do not. In the upper portions 

 of these roots there are very distinct impressions of sheathing 



Occasionally oblong tubers such as those represented in E. 

 parlatorii, Unger (see Schimp Pal. Veg. Atlas, plate 8, fig 14) 

 may be met with, but they are always detached from the roots, and 



