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went on to describe what he deemed a new species of Stigraaria, which 

 he had found in Joppa quarry. In the specimen exhibited, the cha- 

 racteristic areolae of the plant presented the ordinary aspect. Each, 

 however, formed the centre of a sculptured star, consisting of from 

 eighteen to twenty rays, or rather the centre of a sculptured flower of 

 the composite order, resembling a garden daisy, — the minute petals 

 being ranged in three concentric lines. Mr. M. then referred to the 

 discovery by Mr. Binney of Manchester, that the Stigraarise are the 

 roots of Sigillarige, or rather, said Mr. M., the discovery that they 

 occupy the place of roots. From a specimen on the table, it would 

 be seen that they terminated very differently from true roots ; ending 

 as abruptly as any of the Cactus tribe, and with their bud-like areolae 

 thickly clustered at the extremities. After arguing the point at con- 

 siderable length, Mr. M. went on to say that it might, he thought, be 

 consistently held, that while the place and position of Stigmaria were, 

 as shown by Mr. Binney, those of true roots, just as the place and 

 position of the rhizoma of Pteris aquilina, or of Cryptogamma crispa, 

 are those of true roots, it was, notwithstanding, not a true root, but 

 merely a congeries of subterranean stems, that sent forth from the 

 centre at which they converged, a thick subaerial trunk, richly sculp- 

 tured, and covered with a foliage of which every trace has long since 

 disappeared. There was but one other plant of the coal measured, 

 said Mr. M., to which he would at present call the attention of the 

 Society. It was evidently a fern, but presented at first sight more 

 the appearance of a Cycadaceous frond than any other vegetable 

 organism of the carboniferous age yet seen. From a mid-stem, about 

 a line in thickness, there proceed at right angles, and in alternate 

 order, a series of sessile lanceolate leaflets, rather more than two 

 inches in length, by about an eighth of an inch in breadth, and about 

 three lines apart. Each is furnished with a slender midrib ; andi, 

 what seems a singular, though not entirely unique feature in a fern, 

 the edges of each are densely hirsute, and bristle with thick, short 

 hair. The venation is not distinctly preserved. In conclusion, Mr. 

 M. took the liberty, he said, of urging on such of the members of the 

 Society as possessed unique fossils of our carboniferous Flora, — unique 

 ieither from the circumstance of their being positively new, or of throw- 

 ing new light on the forms Or structure of plants already known in 

 part, — the importance of exhibiting and describing them for the gene- 

 ral benefit. The authors of both Fossil Floras and Fossil Faunas, 

 however able or accomplished they may be, have often to found their 

 genera and species, and to frame their restorations, when they attempt 



