No. 7.] DAWSON — SCOTTISH DEVONIAN PLANTS. 385 



Lycopodites of which L. Vanuxemii of the American Devonian 

 and L, penncrformis of the European Lower Carboniferous are 

 the types, and it shows, what might have been anticipated from 

 other specimens, that they were low tufted plants, circinate in 

 vernation. The short stem of this plant is simply furrowed, and 

 bears no resemblance to the detached branch of Lycopodites 

 Miller i which lies at right angles to it on the same slab (see 

 figure). As to the affinities of the singular type of plants to 

 which this specimen belongs, I may quote from my Report on 

 the Lower Carboniferous plants of Canada, in which I have 

 described an allied species, L. plumula : — 



" The botanical relations of these plants must remain subject 

 to doubt, until either their internal structure or their fructifica- 

 tion can be discovered. In the mean time I follow Goeppert in 

 placing them in what we must regard as the provisional genus 

 Lycopodites. On the one hand they are not unlike the slender 

 twigs of Taxodium and similar Conifers, and the highly carbo- 

 naceous character of the stems gives some colour to the supposi- 

 tion that they may have been woody plants. On the other hand, 

 they might, in so far as form is concerned, be placed with algae of 

 the type of Brongniart's Chondrites obtusus, or the modern 

 Cauforpa plumaria. Again, in a plant of this type from the 

 Devonian of Caithness to which I have referred iu a former 

 memoir, the vernation seems to have been circinate, and Schimper 

 has conjectured that these plants may be ferns, which seems also 

 to have been the view of Shumard." 



On the whole these plants are allied to Lycopods rather than 

 to Ferns; and as they constitute a small but distinct group, 

 known only in so far as I am aware in the Lower Carboniferous 

 and Erian or Devonian, they deserve a generic name, and I 

 would propose for them that of Ptilophyton, a name sufficiently 

 distinct in sound from Psilophyton, and expressing very well their 

 peculiar feather like habit of growth. This genus may for the 

 present be defined as follows : — 



Branching plants, the branches bearing long slender leaves in 

 two or more ranks, giving them a feathered appearance ; vernation 

 circinate. Fruit unknown, but analogy would indicate that it 

 was borne on the bases of the leaves or on modified branches 

 with shorter leaves. 



I would name the present species Pt. Thomsoni, and would 

 characterize it by its densely tufted form and thick branches, 



