Fossil Floras of Cape Colony, 103 



like 44a, 45a, and 47a, does not exhibit the typical Spirophyton 

 characters. 



Genus SPIROPHYTON, Hall. 

 (Probably of mechanical and not vegetable origin.) 



Among the specimens from Cape Colony there are a few large 

 blocks of hard quartzose rock containing well-marked impressions of 

 the problematical fossil Spirophyton from the Witteberg sandstone, 

 1 mile N.E. of Touws River Station, from Zout Kloof, 3 miles E.S.E. 

 of Ladismith and from the north bank of the Touws River at Letta's 

 Kraal. 



The Reports of the South African Geological Commission contain 

 several references to the abundance of Spirophyton cauda-galli in 

 the Witteberg quartzites ; ■■'- it is mentioned as being particularly 

 abundant towards the top of this series, and is regarded as a 

 convenient and apparently trustworthy means of recognising the 

 Witteberg beds. 



In 1842 Vanuxemi pul^lished a figure of a " fucoid," which he 

 described as occurring in great abundance in the so-called Cauda- 

 Galli Grit of the Ithaca group, Madison County. Vanuxem's fossil 

 was afterwards figured by Hall:|; under the name Spirophyton cauda- 

 galli Van. as occurring in North American strata referred to the 

 Devonian period, and described as a plant consisting of a slender 

 axis bearing a thin and broad spirally disposed "phyllome." Hall, 

 as well as several other authors, compared the fossil with certain 

 recent Algae. The authors of the Palaeobotanical volume of Zittel's 

 Handhnchdcr PalcBontologie i include Spirophyton with other similar 

 forms in the group Alectorurideae ; this group comprises examples 

 ranging in age from Silurian to Tertiary strata. There can be little 

 doubt that the fossils referred to Schimper's genus Alectoriorus || of 

 Silurian age, as well as those included in such genera as Cancello- 

 phycits 'i and Taonwrus "* from Mesozoic strata, without mentioning" 

 others from Upper Palaeozoic it and Tertiary rocks, might equally 

 well be designated Spirophyton. It is evident that Vanuxem's genus, 

 whatever its nature may be, is met with in sedimentary rocks of 

 almost all geological formations. Nathorst :|:.| speaks of the Alecto- 

 rurideae as occurring in such a position in sedimentary strata as must 



* Annual Reports (97), pp. 19, -50, 04; (98), pp. 10, 49, 61 ; (99), p. 35. 

 t Vanuxem (42), pp. 128, 177, figs. p. 128. \ Hall (63). 



§ Zittel (90), p. 54. |i Ihid., fig. 43, p. 55. "I Ihid., p. 57. 



** Heer (76), pi. xlviii. ft Lesquereux (79), pi. A. \\ Nathorst (86=). p. 45. 



