74 NEW YORK STATE MUSEUM 



clearly shaped principally after this species. If, therefore, 

 S. angustifolius is a conularid, but not congeneric with 

 Conularia, it should retain the generic name and a new one be 

 selected for the second species. We therefore propose here the 

 name Sphenophycus for the second species. 



Both Sphenothallus angustifolius and Spheno- 

 phycus latifolius possess remarkably thick carbonaceous 

 tests. That of Sphenothallus angustifolius also con- 

 tains phosphate of lime and has the appearance of having originated 

 from a chitinous or conchiolinous substance. Following a sugges- 

 tion of Mr White, I tested the organic matter of Sphenophycus by 

 fire and found that it burns with a fair degree of completeness, 

 leaving an ash residue consisting of clay and silica and probably 

 resulting from silt infiltration into the canals of the organism. This 

 evidence suggests the vegetable nature of the carbonaceous tests. 



The most remarkable portions of these vegetable remains are 

 the club-shaped bodies reproduced on plate 2, figures 113. These 

 were all obtained in one block that had fallen from the cliff over- 

 hanging the Mohawk river at Aqueduct. They consist of an ellipti- 

 cal or circular distal smooth body borne on an equally smooth 

 pedicel. The distal body is in well-preserved specimens flattened 

 at the apex and in some this part is infolded. The wrinkles and 

 partial sections prove that the distal bodies were originally more or 

 less inflated and the pedicel tubular (see section, plate 2, figure 

 8). The outline of these problematic fossils, a large number of 

 which were obtained from the block, proved suggestive of a variety 

 of animal objects, notably of chimaeroid, gastropod and cephalopod 

 egg-cases, all of which suggestions were disproved by the kind ad- 

 vice of Messrs Bashford Dean, Gratacap and Pilsbry. Mr White 

 has expressed the opinion to us that these bodies are algal flotation 

 appendages. A specimen was observed showing these bladders 

 attached to a spirally arranged group of the thalli of a Sphenophycus. 

 It broke when lifted up ; the portion saved is reproduced on plate 

 2, figure 13. This specimen and the apparent absence of any 

 apertures of the bulbs or of any substance originally inclosed within 

 them, are strong arguments in favor of that view. Likewise, the 

 absence of any coarser surface sculpture on the bulbs, the extreme 

 length of the pedicels in some and its unvaryingly torn proximal 

 extremity, as well as the fibrous character of the pedicel seen in 

 some examples, and the auxiliary bulblike inflations (see plate 2, 

 figure u) in the pedicel, point to the vegetable origin of these 



