184 REMINISCENCES OF 



with similar views, as Palaeozoic Fucoid forms of 

 plant life. 



On visiting Barmouth at a later date, I was natu- 

 rally on the look-out for similar pseudophytes. 

 " Products of tidal action and drainage were not 

 "wanting, but to my surprise, those of the new 

 " locality were wholly different from what I found 

 "on the Carnarvonshire coast." Yet, though 

 different, they were not the less plant-like. The 

 shore was covered with tidal ripple marks, which 

 were cut through obliquely by drainage streamlets. 

 Casts were made, as before, of these new forms, 

 and photographs of them published in my memoir. 

 They resemble the overlapping scale leaves of some 

 cycadean stems, and probably might have been mis- 

 taken for such, had they been discovered on some 

 slab of oolitic sandstone. 



Still another important palaeo-botanical question 

 had agitated scientific thinkers for many years past, 

 without reaching a satisfactory solution. One of 

 the most abundant of the fossil plants found in the 

 carboniferous rocks was that to which Brongniart 

 originally gave the name of Stigmaria ficoides. 

 The wildest notions were prevalent up to a late 

 period respecting this object. It was believed 

 to be a huge floating aquatic plant, in which long, 

 sub-dividing branches radiated from a central dome- 

 shaped axis, the branches being furnished with 

 leaves arranged in an approach to a quincuncial 

 .geometric pattern. But an important discovery was 



