•r ^ 



n 



t> > 



••% 



the Lower Carboniferous plantt' of CuDuda, in which I have 

 described an allied species, L. plumuln : — 



'* The botanical relations of these plants must reniain subject 

 to doubt, until either their internal structure or their fructifica- 

 tion can be discovered. In the mean time I follow Goeppert in 

 placing them in what we must re;^ard as the provisional «;enus 

 Li/('()jH)<fi(eH. On the one hand they are not unlike the slender 

 twi<;s of Tirxfxh'nin .ind similar ('onifers, and the hiirhly carbo- 

 naceous character of the stems nives some colour to the supposi- 

 tion that they may have beejj woody plants. On the other hand, 

 they mijrlit, in so far as form is concerned, be placed with aljjjae of 

 the type of Brougniart's Chniulritn ohtnaits, or the modern 

 Cduierpn plnnnn'i'd. Ai:,ain, in a plant of this type from the 

 Devonian of Caithness to which I have referred in a former 

 memoir, the vernation seems to have been circinate, and Schimpcr 

 has conjectured that those plants may be ferns, which seems also 

 to have been the view of Shumard." 



On the whole these plants are allied to Lycopods rather than 

 to Ferns ; and as they constitute a small but distinct group, 

 known only in so far as I am aware in the Lower Carboniferous 

 and Erian or Devonian, they deserve a generic name, and I 

 would proj)Ose for them that of Ft'dophyton, a name sufficiently 

 distinct in sound from Psilophyton, and expressing very well their 

 peculiar feather like habit of growth. This genus may for the 

 present be defined as follows: — 



Branching plants, the branches bearing long slender leaves in 

 two or more ranks, giving them a feathered appearance ; vernation 

 circinate. Fruit unknown, but analogy would indicate that it 

 was borne on the bases of the leaves or on modified branches 

 with shorter leaves. 



I would name the present species Ft. Thomsoni, and would 

 characterize it by its densely tufted form and thick branches, 

 until specimens more fully developed shall be found. The other 

 species will be: — 



Pt. penna'/ormis, Goeppert, L. Carboniferous. 

 Ft. Vanuxemii, Dawson, Devonian. 

 Ft. plumula, Dawson, L. Carboniferous. 



Shumard's Filicites gracilis, from the Devonian of Ohio, and 

 Stur's Finites antecedens, from the Lower Carboniferous of 

 Silesia, may possibly belong to the same genus. The present 

 specimen is apparently the first appearance of this form in the 

 Devonian of Europe. 



