1870.] NOTE ON THE GENUS EOPHYTON. 21 



Devonian, and perhaps indicates a plant of somewhat high 



organization. Whether it has any affinity with the Eophyton 

 of Torell is more than doubtful. It is thus described by 

 Mr. Hicks : — 



" As none of the figures hitherto given of the genus Eoplujton 

 show either its internal structure or articulations of its stems, 

 and as I am in possession of a specimen from the Lower Arenig 

 rocks of Ramsey Island, near St. David's, which resembles in 

 some respects the Eophyton Linnceanum Torell, but which 

 shows both articulations of the stem, and an internal vascular 

 structure, a description of the species may probably be useful, 

 and may tend to elucidate the true nature of Eophyton, con- 

 cerning which so much doubt seems to exist at present. 



'^ There can be no reasonable doubt of the vegetable nature of 

 this fossil, and I think its affinity to the vascular Cryptogams is 

 most clearly shewn. 



" These Lower Arenig rocks, from whence the specimen was 

 obtained, rest apparently quite conformable on Upper Lingula- 

 flags,* and underlie the true Arenig or Skiddaw rocks. Nearly 

 all the species obtained from these beds are new, and they 

 indicate a fauna intermediate between Tremadoc rocks and the 

 true Arenig rocks. Indeed, in the report to the British 

 Association, by Mr. Salter and myself, in 1866, they were 

 classed as Tremadoc rocks ; but I have since thought it advis- 

 able to separate them and to place them in an intermediate 

 position. The Brachiopoda from these rocks have been described 

 by Mr. Davidson {Geol. Mag., Vol. V. p. 303), but all the other 

 species are yet undescribed. 



" Eophyton (?) explanatum, n.sp. — A raised, moderately 

 convex stem, about four lines in breadth ; widening, however, 

 and becoming somewhat compressed at the joints. The surface 

 is ribbed, and furrowed along its whole length. At the lower 

 joint the ribs bend outwards, evidently to form a branch. The 

 joint is obliquely placed, widened out, and its course distinctly 

 marked by a deep sulcus. The cortical substance is very thin, 

 and can be removed to shew the internal structure. The internal 



* So marked in the Geological Survey Maps. I am inclined, 

 however, to think that they are representatives of the Tremadoc 

 rocks, for Ling. Davisii, which is the only fossil present, is equally 

 characteristic of Tremadoc rocks, and reaches here also into these 

 Lower Arenig rocks. 



