259 



The specimen which is shown in natural size in pl. I, fig. 1, 

 consists of an impression of a slem-like fragment measuring about 

 50 mm. in lenglh, a litlle more than 1 mm. in breadth at the 

 broken base and only slightly less at the top which is also broken. 

 A little more than 1 cm. from the base there is a branch, a little 

 more than 20 mm. long. The branch has about the same Ihick- 

 ness as the mother axis, and the branching is no doubl dichoto- 

 mous though one of the two branches resulting from the bifurca- 

 tion continues in tiie same direction as the axis below the point 

 of branching. 



The whole specimen is covered with fairly densely placed, Hnear 

 lateral appendages, about 1 — 1,5 mm. long. These appendages 

 which are slightly recurved are distinctly seen only at the sides of 

 the axis Nvhere they appear as slight impressions contrasting tbrough 

 their dark or brown colour Nvilh the light grey of the rock. There 

 are, however, indications of the appendages also on the impression 

 of the surface of the axis (figs. 2 and 3), and there is hardly any 

 doubt that they were placed radially, all round the stem, perhaps 

 in a spiral, though no details of their arrangement can be made 

 out. Usually the ai)pendages are broken, but sometimes the apex 

 is preserved, as in lig. 4, ^vhere it is seen to be somewhat acute. 

 In one or two cases the appendages show a darker longiludinal 

 line which ma\' correspond to a vein, though this is far from 

 certain. This feature does not appear well in lig. 4. In addition 

 to the appendages now described there is seen, at the margin of 

 the impression of the stem, a kind of very minule hairs, only 

 visible in higher magnilication (lig. 5). 



The fact that the specimen was found in a bed containing for 

 the rest only marine fossils, raises the suspicion that it may not 

 be a plant, as ils habit suggests, or at least not a land-plant. Dr. 

 Hedk and olher palaeozoologists, who have examined the specimen 

 are, however, of the opinion that it cannot belong to any known 

 group of the animal kingdom. The habil is no doubt that of a 

 plant and suggests a dichotomously branched axis bearing spines 

 or rudimentary leaves. The specimen may be an alga, but the 

 axis seems lo have been rather lirm and bard, to judge from the 

 impression, and the whole habil is rather Ihal of a primitive land- 

 plant such as we now know from the Lower Devonian. Il is 

 chiefly this resemblance lo the vascular j)lanls of the Lower Devo- 

 nian that gives us some reason to regard the specimen as a pro- 



