PLANT-REMAINS OF DOUBTFUL AFFINITY, ETC. 367 



is a similar but smaller stem, and is unbranched in the only known speci- 

 men, which is in the Museum at Strassburg. With such imperfect knowledge 

 of these remains, we can hardly expect to succeed in determining their 

 affinities. Schimper wavered originally between Lycopodiaceae and various 

 Monocotyledons. At length he says 1 : ' We were on the point of declaring 

 in favour of the latter hypothesis (Lycopodiaceae), when minute examina- 

 tion disclosed in the spikes some seeds like small seeds of Coniferae, 

 a discovery scarcely calculated to advance us in our researches.' But 

 he then refers them to Monocotyledons on account of these seeds, 

 about which I have been unable to satisfy myself from the original 

 specimens. I quite agree myself with Schenk's 2 opinion, that such a 

 classification is altogether in the air, and that it can do no good and 

 may do harm, so long as we have no present proof of the existence of un- 

 doubted Monocotyledons or of any Angiosperms in these ancient deposits. 

 It may just be mentioned that another spike-like object, also found in the 

 Buntsandstein of Sulzbad, has been described by Brongniart 3 as Echino- 

 stachys, and figured by Schimper 4 . 



How little we know of the real nature of Spirangium 5 is shown at once 

 by the variety of names which the remains in question have received in the 

 course of time from different authors. The first-known species was described 

 by Brongniart 6 as Palaeoxyris regularis. It comes from the Buntsandstein 

 of Sulzbad in the Vosges, and has been figured by Schimper and Mougeot 7 . 

 A second species is Palaeoxyris Miinsteri, Presl 8 , from the Rhaetic beds of 

 Franconia, which has since been minutely examined by Schenk 9 . Other 

 remains of the same kind are stated by Saporta 10 to have been found in 

 the Rhaetic beds of Couches near Autun (Spirangium ventricosum u ), and 

 in those of Palsjo in Schonen by Nathorst 12 . Spirangium Quenstedti, Schpr. 

 (Palaeoxyris 13 ) comes from the Keuper of Waldhausen near Tubingen. A 

 form which is common in the Wealden formation of Hanover has been 

 described by Ettingshausen 14 as Palaeobromelia Jugleri, and Schenk 15 has 

 given fine figures of the same. The genus occurs also in the Carboniferous 

 formation, and has therefore an unusually extended vertical distribution. 

 It is true that the specimens of Palaeoxyris carbonaria from the Upper 

 Carboniferous deposits of Wettin are not above suspicion. These specimens 

 and the remains from the American Coal-measures described by Les- 

 quereux 16 as Spirangium Prendelii, Lesq. are declared by Schenk n to be 



1 Schimper (3), p. 58. Zittel (1), p. 358. 3 Brongniart (9). * Schimper (3), t. 23. 



5 Schimper (1), vol. ii I, p. 515 ; t. 80. 8 Brongniart (9), p. 456, t. 20. 7 Schimper et 



Mougeot (3), t. 23, and (1), t. 80, f. i. 8 Sternberg, Graf von (1), Heft 5-8, t 59. 9 Schenk (3), 

 p. 195 ; t. 45, ff. 7, 8. 10 Saporta (2), p. 230. " Schimper (1), t. 80, f. 4. 12 Nathorst (7). 

 13 Quenstedt (1), t. 82, f. i. " von Ettingshausen (6). " Schenk (1), tt. 40, 41. 18 Stiehler 

 (1) ; Schimper (1), vol. ii I, p. 514 ; Germar (1), t. 33, f. 3. " Lesquereux (1), p. 519; t 75. 



18 Schenk (3), p. 197; Zittel (1), p. 394. 



