FOUND AT LAXEY, ISLE OF MAN. 215 



As Mr. Lesquereux^s so much resembles the one found 

 at Laxey, I shall give his description at length : — 



'^ Psilophytum cornutum, sp. nov. Plate i. fig. i. 



"Stemthick^ dichotomous; divisions variable in distance, 

 the terminal ones short, pointed, nearly equal in size and 

 length, surface slightly rugose and irregularly striate. 



" The branches in the lower part are thick comparatively 

 to their length, three or four millimetres, irregularly striate 

 when decorticated, or merely punctuate upon the thin 

 bark, with small projecting dots resembling the basilar 

 remains of scales or small decayed leaves ; lateral branches 

 short, narrowed to a sharp point ; the upper or terminal 

 ones about equal in length, appearing like a pair of pointed 

 horns." 



The species is only comparable to some of the fragments 

 not specified but figured by Prof. J. W. Dawson (Geol. 

 Survey of Canada, '^ Fossil Plants of the Devonian and 

 Upper Silurian Formations,^^ figs. 243, 244). The author 

 remarks '' that these fragments are probably originating 

 in the Uijper Silurian of Gaspe ; that, as they are found 

 in the lower part of the limestone which underlies the De- 

 vonian Gaspe Sandstone and become more abundant in the 

 upper beds, this suffices to indicate the existence of the 

 neighbouring land, probably composed of Silurian rocks 

 and supporting vegetation. 



" From the preservation of its branches, even to the 

 smallest subdivisions, the specimens here represent part of 

 a plant imbedded in the place of its growth. The matrix 

 is a piece of very hard calcareous shale seven or eight 

 millimetres thick, bearing on one side irregular undu- 

 lations like ripple-marks, without any trace of organic 

 remains, and on the other the fragments of plants as figured 

 here (p. 216), The branch in («) represents a different 



