180 FOSSIL PLANT-REMAINS IN PEAT. 



A dioecious shrub or tree, with the branches spreading more or 

 less widely, straight, alternate or rather closely approximated, of a 

 pale ashy hue, glabrate, but the branchlets clothed with a pale or 

 tawny pubescence, and leafy ; the leaves are alternate, mostly 

 obovate, and of a thinner substance than usual in most species of 

 the genus, obtuse at the apex, not cordate at the base, rather 

 pubescent, especially on the lower surface, ciliolate, 2-3 in. long by 

 1-lf in. wide ; the petiole is pubescent and measures ^-J in. long. 

 On the male plant the flowers before expanding measure scarcely 

 ^ in. long, and are arranged in the upper axils in short tawny- 

 pubescent 3-flowered cymes ; the common peduncle is i-^ in. long, 

 and the pedicels are still shorter ; the caducous tawny-pubescent 

 bracteoles, like very small leaves, are placed at the apex of the 

 peduncle, and about equal or slightly exceed it in length ; the calyx 

 is tubular-ovoid, about ^ in. in length and ^ in. in diameter, very 

 shortly and vaguely 4-lobed at the apex, tawny-pubescent outside, 

 and smooth and appressedly hairy inside ; the corolla is glabrous 

 or very nearly so, 4-cleft, with the lobes rounded at the apex, and 

 much contorted sinistrorsely in estivation ; the stamens were 15 in 

 all the flowers that were examined, and glabrous, with anthers about 

 ■^ in. long, and the rather unequal filaments not longer than the 

 anthers ; there was no trace of an ovary, nor any hairs in its place. 

 Female plant not seen. 



Upper Shire, Fort Johnstone Flats, December, 1894, No. 8433 ; 

 Shire Highlands, Ruo, December, 1894, No. 8674; Shire Zambesi, 

 Ruo, December, 1894, No. 8681. 



The affinity of this species is with the larger-leaved D. senmsis 

 Klotzsch, which also occurs in the Mozambique district, and of 

 which it may prove to be a variety or state. 



FOSSIL PLANT-REMAINS IN PEAT. 

 By Antony Gepp, M.A., F.L.S. 



The following notes are published not as presenting any novelty 

 to those who read geological literature, but in the hope that they 

 may be of interest to botanists as indicating a line of research 

 which is as yet far from being exhausted, and is capable of providing 

 attractive employment for the reasoning faculties at a time when a 

 botanist's ordinary vocations are at a minimum. 



Some weeks ago I received from Mr. R. F. Damon, of "Wey- 

 mouth, some specimens of peat which had been washed up on the 

 sea-shore at that place during the winter-gales. Mr. W. Jex, who 

 collected the specimens, had taken a great deal of trouble in sepa- 

 rating out from the peaty matrix some of the contents. Amongst 

 these were six species of mosses, the rootstock of a fern and of 

 another plant, some squashed succulent stems, and several seeds 

 and fruits. The rest of the material consisted of compressed lumps 

 of peat, rather like oil-cake in appearance, and in some cases 



