1 



76 CANADIAN FOSSILS. 



of Upper Silurian and Devonian plants from Oreat Britain and Ireland, 

 in the collections of Jormjn Street and in the British Museum. These 

 collections illustrate the descriptions of Dr. Hooker, Mr. Salter and Mr. 

 Bailey, and contain besides some unpublished material. They enable mo 

 to add the following comparisons. 



In specimens from the Upper Silurian (Ludlow bods), in addition to the 

 remarkable bodies described by Hooker under the name Pachytheca, and 

 which are probably spore-cases, there are fragments of flattened stems 

 which may be referred with some probability to Pailophyton, and small 

 pieces of carbonized \\ood, showing under the microscope a distinctly 

 fibrous structure with indications of discs. They may well have belonged 

 to a plant of the nature of PrototaxitM.* 



In specimens from the Middle Devonian of Scotland, the remarkable 

 stem described by Salter as Caulopterit Peachii indicates a sub-arborescent 

 fern, with large fronds, of which the petioles alone remain. Lepidodendron 

 nothum, identified by the same author, is a plant closely allied to L. Gaspia- 

 num. A species referred to Selaginites, may belong to the same general 

 group with Lycopoditea Richardfoni. There are also fragments referri- 

 ble to Psilophyton princepa and P. rohustius, and portions of carbonized 

 stems, for the most part structureless, but one of which shows woody tissue 

 with oval pores inscribed in hexagonal meshes, and which may have belonged 

 to Sigillaria or Calamodendron. > ■ 



From the Upper Devonian of Ireland, there are fine collections made by 

 Mr. Bailey in the Kiltorcan bods. In these Cyclopteria (Archoeopteris) 

 Sibernica represents our American C. Jacksoni and its allies. There 

 are two Sphenopterids, Filicitea Uneatus of Bailey, and Humphrianus 

 of Schimper. There is also a remarkable series of specimens believed to 

 illustrate the genus Cyclostigma of Haughton.f The smaller branches 

 and stems aro those described by Haughton. The larger stems have 

 rounded margined areoles with a central scar, and spirally arranged, some- 

 times on faint narrow ribs like those of Syringodendron which the scars also 

 resemble ; and there are well developed Stigmaria roots and Lepidoden- 

 droid leaves and strobiles referred to the same plant. The largest stems 

 are labeled Sagenaria Baileyana^ but they certainly do not belong to 

 the genus Sagenaria as heretofore defined. If the whole of the parts 

 referred to this plant really belong to one species, it will constitute one of 

 the most remarkable of the composite types of the Devonian, and may prove 

 characteristic of it. My species Cyclostigma densifolium is of the same 



* Slices of these plants hay« been prepared throu({h the kindness of Mr. Btheridge, and' 

 I have no hesitation in stating my belief that they indicate the existence in the Upper Silu- 

 rian of England, of trees of the type of Prototaxitei. 



t Proceedings Royal Irish Academy. 



