5 Devo7iian Plants. 



Neither of the species exhibit distinct fructification. Certain 

 obscurely cuneate carbon aceous"spots attached to the sides of the 

 branches of P. princeps are, perhaps, of this character ; and the 

 object represented in fig. 1 e, which appears to be thus attach edr 

 may be an example in better preservation than usual. It consists, 

 of four thick lanceolate leaves or bracts with single midrib, arising 

 from a flattened carbonaceous patch, which shows traces of similar 

 leaves on its surface. These leaves or bracts have evidently 

 enclosed the fructification of some lycopodiaceous plant ; and 

 from their association with PsilopTiyton princepSj I regard it as 

 highly probable, though by no means certain, that they belong to 

 that species. 



The rhizomata of PsilopTiyton princeps occur in situ in a 

 number of argillaceous beds, in a manner which shows that they 

 crept in immense numbers over flats of sandy clay, on which their 

 graceful stems must have formed a thick, but delicate, herbage, 

 rising to the height of from two to four feet. The rhizomes and 

 the bases of the stems may possibly have been submerged ; but I 

 should infer, from the appearance and structure of the latter, that 

 they were rigid, woody, and perhaps brittle. In many beds in 

 which the rhizomes have not been distinctly preserved, the 

 vertical rootlets remain, producing an appearance very similar to 

 that of the Stigmarian under-clays of the coal-measures. Sir W, 

 E. Logan has noted in his detailed sections numerous cases of this 

 kind. 



When broken into fragments and imperfectly preserved, Psilo- 

 pTiyton princeps presents a variety of deceptive appearances. When 

 perfectly compressed in such a manner as to obliterate the mark- 

 ings^ it might be regarded as a dichotoraous fucoid or a flattened 

 root. When decorticated and exhibiting faint longitudinal striae^ 

 it presents, especially when the more slender branchlets are 

 broken off, the aspect of a frond of ScTiizopteris or TricTiomanites, 

 When rendered hollow by decay, it forms bifurcating tubules, 

 which might be regarded as twigs of some tree with the pith 

 removed. Lastly, the young plants might be mistaken for ferns 

 in a state of vernation. In all conditions of preservation, the 

 stems, rhizomes, androotlets, if separated, might be referred to dis- 

 tinct genera. I have little doubt therefore that many imperfectly 

 preserved Devonian plants of this general form, noticed under 

 various names by authors, may belong to this genus, and some of 

 them to the species above described. In particular I may refer 



