Oil the Species of the Genus Pala;oxyris. 55 



Morris in 1840 from the coal measures of Coalbrook Dale, 

 as Carpolithes helideroides} 



Prof. Morris gives the following description of his fossil : 

 " Fruit ovato-lanceolate, attenuated at both ends ; polycar- 

 pous (?) ; carpella, 4 or 5, twisted spirally, but not close 

 together." He further adds : " The apparent resemblance of 

 this specimen to the cast of a fruit of Helicteres, has sug- 

 gested the specific name, although its affinity to that genus 

 may be very doubtful." 



" The above name was given to the specimen previously 

 to our having seen a somewhat similar fossil described by 

 Presl in the last part of Sternberg's Flora d. Yorwelt, where 

 it is placed under the genus Palceoxyris, Brongniart, from its 

 supposed resemblance to the inflorescence of the recent 

 Xyris, an opinion scarcely borne out by the general appear- 

 ance of this fossil; it has, therefore, been retained under 

 Carpolithes, for the reasons stated above." 



In 1844, Schimper and Mougeot, in their "Monog. des 

 plantes fossiles du gres Bigarre de la Chaine des Vosges," ^ 

 still retain Pcdceoxyris among the Monocotyledons, and the 

 same position is accorded to these plants by Unger.^ 



A second Carboniferous species, P. carhonaria, Schimper, 

 was described by Stiehler from Wettin in 1850.* 



Germar in his description of this species, published in 

 1851,^ still describes the fossil as covered with rhomboidal 

 scales. 



Ettingshausen in 1852 described what he believed to be a 

 new genus of fossil plants from the Wealden of Deister, 

 Germany, which he named Palmohromelia.^ These fossils 

 were of fusiform shape, and composed of a number of seg- 



1 Trans. Geol. Soc, 2d ser., vol. v. Explanation to figs. 12 and 12a, pi. 

 xxxviii. 



2 p. 47. Leipsig. 



'^ Synop. plant, foss., p. 168. 1845 ; and Genera et Species, p. 313. 1850. 



4 Zeitsch. d. dent. geol. Gesell., vol. ii., p. 182, pi. vii. Also in Bull, de 

 la Soc. Geol. de France, 2^ ser., vol. vii., p. 650. 1850. 



^ Yers. d. Steinkohlengebirges von Wettin and Lobejin, Heft, vii., p. 95, 

 pi. xxxiii., fig 3. 



6 Uber Palaeobromelia, ein neues Fossiles Pflanzengeschlecht, Abhandl. d. 

 k. k. geol. Eeichsaustalt, 1 Band, 3 Abth., p. 1. "VYien, 1852. 



