54 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



We are not well acquainted yet with the food of the fry, 

 but there is no doubt about the richness of the surface fauna 

 beyond even the fifty-mile line. The surface fauna of the 

 Moray Eirth is extremely rich, and, as I have again and 

 again proved, surface forms are nearly as abundant forty 

 miles at sea as they are inshore. 



III. On the Species of the Genus Palseoxyris, Brongniart, oc- 

 curring in British Carhoniferous Rocks. By Egbert 

 KiDSTON, Esq., F.RS.E, F.G.S. [Plate I.] 



(Eead 16tli December 1885.) 



The genus Pcdceoxyris, one of the most problematical genera 

 of Palaeozoic plants, was described by Brongniart in 1828 in 

 his "Essai d'une flore du gres bigarre."^ It was defined as a 

 terminal fusiform inflorescence, which, with the exception of 

 the stalk-like extension of the fossil, was covered with very 

 regular adpressed rhomboidal imbricating scales. 



In the figures which accompany the description of the 

 genus,^ Brongniart figures certain delicate lines, which appear 

 to arise from the summit of the fossil. These, he thought, 

 might be the remains of the stamens and styles. He also 

 draws on the same plate what he believed to be an isolated 

 scale. 



Erom the supposed likeness of these fossils to Xyris, the 

 genus was named Palmoxyris, and placed, though with some 

 doubt, among the Monocotyledons.^ 



This erroneous view of the nature of Palmoxyris, which 

 was based upon a misconception of the structure of these 

 fossils, was accepted by PresL* 



The first Palaeozoic species of Palceoxyris was described by 



1 Ami, des Sciences nat. 1^ ser., vol. xv., p. 456 ; also Prodrome, j)p- 137 

 and 190. 1828. 



2 FaUmxyris rcgularis, Ann. des Sciences nat. I.e., pi. xx., fig. 1. 



3 See also Brongniart, Tableau de genres de vegetanx fossiles, (Extract 

 from Dictionnaire universel d'bistoire naturelle), p. 86. 1849. 



^ In Sternberg's Vers, ii., p. 189. 1838. 



