82 



CANADIAN FOSSILS. 



I* 





I think it probable that the singular stellate objects represented in Fig. 

 70 have had some connection with this plant. They are perhaps its roota 

 or possibly whorls of leaves imbedded without compression in mixed sand 

 and mud. They are thick and massive, and penetrate the thickness of the 

 beds in which they are contained. 



The objects represented in Figs. 71, 72, are also of a radiating char 

 acter and may have Lad a similar origin. They resemble the Cauda-galli 

 fucoid (Spirophyton), but are apparently radiating roots or leaves (PI. 

 VI. Figs. 71, 72). 



On the same slabs with Annularia laxa are i\umerou8 oval discoid 

 bodies with a papilla or protuberance in the centre. They are smooth, 

 thin and carbonaceous, and show no markings, except a few minute raised 

 points near the margin. They may be flattened carpolites or peltate scales 

 of some strobile ; but they appear too thin to be explained in these ways. 

 I can scarcely suppose that they have any connection with Annularia 

 hi,a ;, but mention them here, as they occur associated with that plant (Fig 

 73.) • ' 



, ' Genus Spuenophylldm — Brong. 



88. Sphenophyllum antiquum, Dn. — (PI. VI, Figs. 61, 62.) — Canad. 

 Nat., VI, PI. 170, Fig. 7. J. G. S., XVIII, 312.— M.D., St. John, 

 New Brunswick. 



V 



" Leaflets cuneate, one-eighth of an inch wide at the apex, and lesa 

 than one-fourth of an inch long. Nerves three, bifurcating equally 

 near the base, the divisions terminating at the apices of six obtuse, 

 acuminate teeth. About eight leaves in a whorl." 



This sole Devonian representative of its genus appears to have been 

 very rare, as I have not been able to obtain any specimens additional to 

 those referred to in the papers cited above. The specimen figured in Fig. 

 61 shows the arrangement of the leaves but not the venation, and is smaller 

 than the detached leaf represented in Fig. 62. 



whorls of leaves attached to each other by horizontal branches, or peltate leaves deeply cut 

 at the edges. I had myself originally labelled them with a new provisional name ; butsub- 

 sequontly feeling that they might come under the technical definition of Annularia, the 

 other species of which were probably also floating leaves, and being reluctant to multiply 

 generic names, I decided to retain them in Annularia. 



