62 Cincinnati Society of Natural History. 



STUDIES IX PROBLEMATIC ORGANISMS. 



No. II. — The Genus Fucoides."^ 



By Joseph F. James, M. Sc, F. G. S. A., F. A. A. A. S., etc. 



The literature dealing with "problematic organisms" is 

 very extensive. From the year 1822, when the genus 

 F'ucoides was established, up to the present time, the num- 

 ber of species described is enormous. No complete biblio- 

 graphy on the subject has ever yet appeared, the onlj- one of 

 any extent being that of Nathorst, published in iSSi.f This 

 list gives 130 titles, but it is by no means complete, and many 

 papers have appeared since it was printed. It is not the 

 intention to give in this place a review of this vast mass of 

 literature, instructive though it might be, but to take up the 

 first genus to be proposed in any formal and scientific manner, 

 and to give a history of it. 



The genus Fucoides was first proposed and defined by 

 Adolphe Brongniart in 1822.+ In a table of the classes and 

 genera of fossil plants we find the following description : 



" Frond unsymmetrical, often disposed in an even plane, 

 with nerves none or badly limited. (PI. Ill, Fig. 3.)" In the 

 course of the article the genus is mentioned several times. 

 The following remarks occur on page 237 : 



" None of the authors who have written on fossil plants, I 

 believe, speak of fossil Fuci, to which we give the name of 



<'iNoTE).— No. I, " The Genus Scolithus, ' was publishtd in Hull. Geol. Soc. Am., 

 vol. iii, 1891, pp. 32-44. 



fOm spar af iiagra evei tebrerade djiir ni. ni. och deras paheontologiska bety- 

 delse; accompanied by an abridged translation in French, '■ Memoire sur quelques 

 traces d'animaiix sans vertebres. etc., et de leur porti'e pal>'ontologique. Kongliga 

 Svenska vetenskai>s-.\kadeniicns Handlingar for iSSo No. 7 . 



JSiir la classification ct la distribution des wg-'taiix fossilcs en gt'Di'-ral, et sur 

 cetix des terrains de s<''dinient snp^rieur en particulier. Meni Mns. d'Hist. Nat., 

 vol. viii, Paris, i8j2, p. 210. 



