'^ 



If a land plant it is probably the oldest at present certainly known.* 



With these plants, Prof. Nicholson sent a fibrous body from 

 the Upper Llundeilo of Hart Fell, near Moifat, which at Brst 

 sight had the appearance of a fra>^incnt of coarsc-i^rained wood. 

 Od microscopic examination of it, however, I concluded that it 

 had been a bundle of spicules of u sponj^e of the type of Ifyalo- 

 nema. This I still believe to be its true nature. 



In studying; the plants of the older rocks, the botanist requires 

 to be on his guard as to the Ah^vc ami Zoophytes of these forma- 

 tions which simulate land plants. In the latter group I know 

 no forms mora deceptive than those of Hall's genus Inoai.ulis, 

 which is regarded as a relative of tlie Graptolites. A specimen 

 now before me, from the collection of Col. Grant, of Hamilton, 

 Ontario, in its ramification and appearance of foliage, bears the 

 closest resemblance to a lycnpodiaceous plant, and I have seen 

 what appears to be the base of a Dicti/oihinn from the Niagara 

 formation, which might rtadily be mistaken for a small and 

 peculiar species of Pxilophijton. 



Messrs. Jack and VitheriJge have given an excellent summary 

 of our present knowledge of the Devonian Flora of Scotland, in 

 the Journal of the London Geological Society. From this it 

 would appear that species referable to the genera Culamites, 

 Lepidodendron , Lj/copodite.s, Psilophi/ton, Arthrostigma, Archa;- 

 opterigj Cfiulopterix, Pdo.opifi/s, Aruiicarloxijlon, and Stlgma- 

 ria have been recognized. 



The plants described by those gentlemou from the Old Red 

 Sandstone of Callender, I should suppose, from their figures and 

 descriptions, to belong to the genus Arthroxtigma, rather than 

 to Fsilophi/ton. I do not attach any importance to the sugges- 

 tions referred to by them, that the apparent leaves may be leaf- 

 bases. Long leaf-bases, like those characteristic of Lepidojloyos, 

 do not occur in these humbler plants of the Devonian. The 

 stems with delicate '' horizontal processes " to whicii they refer 

 may belong to Ptilophijtou or to PintmlHrid. 



In conclusion, I need scarcely say that I do not share in the 

 doubts expressed by some British Palaeontologists as to the dis- 

 tinctness of the Devonian and Carboniferous Floras. In Eastern 



• Since the ahovc was written, Lcsquorcnx has described supposed 

 land plants from the Cincinnati Group (Lower Silurian) of Ohio. 

 Saporta has discovered what he regards as a tern in rocks of similar 

 age in France, and Claypole will shortly describe an apparently 

 lepidodendroid tree (GlypwdenJron') from the Clinton Group of Ohio ; 

 but neither of these is quite so old as the Skiddaw plants. 



