24 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



CONTBIBUTIONS TO PALEONTOLOGY. 



By S.. a. Miller and C. B. Dyer. 



Blastophycds, n. gen. 



[Ety. — Blastos, a bwd ; phukoa, sea weed.j 



Plant having a bilobate form, with a protuberance or bud-like at- 

 tachment at the junction of the branches. This protuberance is longi- 

 tudinally' rugose in the typical species, while the branches are smooth 

 It would seem, however, that the genus should include both smooth 

 and rugose species. We regard this protuberance at tlie junction of 

 the branches, as of generic importance, and wholly separating it from 

 all other known genera of sea plants. Whether it is considered a bud, 

 shoot, frond or spore, it certainly evinces that the fossil can not be re- 

 garded as the rhizoma or root of another genus, and proves that it is 

 in truth the representative ot a sea plant. 



Blastophycus diadematus, n. sp. (Plate I., figs. 1 and 2.) 



[Ety. — Diadematus, diademed.] 



The general form of the plant is subovate, with a bud-like attach- 

 ment at the larger end, covering the junction of the branches. The 

 two branches forming the subovate part of the fossil are smooth, and 

 appear to have been round in all the specimens examined. They unite 

 beneath the bud, and gradually swell in size as they curve and form 

 the larger end of an ovate figure, and then decline in size as the^' ap- 

 proach each other toward the smaller end of the figure, and finally 

 lose themselves in the slab without' again uniting. 



The bud-like attachment resting upon the junction of the branches 

 is somewhat hemispherical, with a small conical elevation on the top, 

 from which numerous furrows radiate to the suiTounding margin. It 

 varies from the general hemispherical shape, b}' being slightlv pro- 

 longed toward the interior of the plant, where the spaces between the 

 furrows are correspondingly enlarged. The furrows curve a little, and 

 the spaces between them are slightl.y rugose. The diameter of this 

 attachment, in ten different specimens examined, was found to vary 

 but little from half an incli, and the height measured a little less than 

 half as much. 



The specimens figured are from the collection of C. B. Dyer, who 

 has another one nearly twice as long as the one illustrated. They 

 were found at Cincinnati, in the lower part of the Cincinnati Group. 



Trichophycus, n. gen. 



[Ety. — Trichos, hair; phukos, sea weed.] 



This genus of plants consists of simple l)rauches or stems having 



