6 ALGITES. 
The Wealden fossils previously classed as A/g@ are not of such im- 
portance as to require serious attention. Dunker’s Confervites fissus’ 
is definitely stated by Schenk,’ after a careful examination of the 
type specimen, to be a rachis fragment of Onychiopsis (Sphenopteris) 
Mantelli (Brong.). The curious marking figured by Heer® from 
Almargem in Portugal as Zenidium lusitanicum, Hr., has little 
claim to be accepted as a fossil plant, so far at least as it is possible 
to judge from the plate. Ettingshausen‘ figures three species 
from the Wealden of Austria, Spherococcites chondrieformis, Ett., 
Confervites setaceus, Ett., and Sargassites Partschit, Ett., but these 
do not afford trustworthy evidence as to the existence of any 
particular family of A/ge. 
In the case of the English specimens there is an obvious objection 
to their reference to seaweeds in the fact that they are found in a 
supposed fresh-water rock ; this, however, does not appear to me at 
all a fatal objection. Marine alge are abundant enough at a 
river’s mouth, and, indeed, extend some distance from the place 
where the fresh water flows into the sea. In the delta deposits of 
the Wealden rivers there might easily be embedded the fronds of 
shallow-water seaweeds. 
There is a striking resemblance, too close to be entirely ignored, 
between some forms of the liverwort Reboulia hemispherica (L.), 
Radd., and the fossil which I have described as an alga. 
V. 2857. Pl. I. Figs. 1 and 2. 
One large and fairly perfect specimen of Algites valdensis; on 
the same slab is a smaller example of this species. The ends of 
the branches are in some cases more or less torn, but appear to 
have originally terminated bluntly. Fragments of Algites catenel- 
loides, sp. nov., scattered over the rock surface, as small branched 
structures. 
In addition to the species already mentioned, ef. Caulerpa arcuata,° 
Schimp., from the Flysch. Near Hastings. Beckles Coll. 
V. 2857a. The reverse piece of the previous specimen. 
Wealdenbildung, p. 1, pl. i. fig 1. 
Paleeontographica, vol. xix. p. 208. 
Sece. Trab. Geol. Portugal, 1881, pl. xx. 
Abh. k.-k. geol. Reichs. vol. i. Abth. iii. No. 2, pl. iii, figs. 1-3 and 12. 
Trait. pal. vég. Atlas, pl. il. fig. 6. 
o ~ © me 
