Mr. R. Kidston on a new Species of Schutzia. 79 
structure in the latter which Géppert believed to be seeds, 
Schimper thinks are stamens, and this view I am inclined to 
adopt. These remarks show thatthe real affinities of Schutzia 
are very obscure. 
Schimper regarded these fossils as belonging to a “ coni- 
ferous plant, which was altogether paradoxical and without 
any analogy, either fossil or recent ”’*. 
Although this is not a very satisfactory manner of dispo- 
sing of Schutzia, the conclusions arrived at by Schimper 
may possibly be correct, though we have little positive 
evidence to support this opinion. 
Large coniferous stems, with their internal structure beauti- 
fully preserved, are of frequent occurrence in various parts of 
the Calciferous Sandstones of Scotland. The remains of 
coniferous trees also occur in rocks of similar age in different 
parts of the globe; but notwithstanding their wide geo- 
graphical distribution and frequency of occurrence, there is 
nothing definitely known regarding their fruit or foliage. 
Prof. Dawson has described and figured a small coniferous- 
like branch from Tatamagouche (Carboniferous formation), 
which he has named Araucarites gracilist. ‘This, he thinks, 
may possibly belong to his Dadoxylon materiarum }f. 
Some botanists regard the Trigonocarpons as the fruit of 
Conifers, but this opinion is not universally accepted§. 
The absence, however, of conclusive evidence as to the 
fruit and foliage of Paleozoic Coniferee is not so surprising 
when we consider that the ancient pines most probably occa- 
pied the uplands of the then existing continents, and only the 
stems and larger branches would be able to resist the abrasion 
and decay of their long journey from the uplands to the flats, 
where mud or sand was being deposited ; and as proof of this, 
many of the stems of these trees are found imbedded in sand- 
stone quarries, where they have been drifted. 
The undoubted occurrence of the genus Schutzia so low 
down in the geological scale is of considerable importance ; 
the discovery in the Calciferous Sandstones of a plant so 
closely related to a Permian species, is alinost without parallel. 
* Loc. cit. p. 358. 
+ Dawson, ‘ Acadian Geology,’ 2nd edit. p. 474, fig. 159 a (1868). 
t Dawson, /. c. p. 424. ale, 
Stur also gives, in his ‘Culm Flora’ (p. 81, pl. xiv. fig. 4), a small 
figure and description of a fossil he has named Pinites antecedens. The 
specimen is small, and its union with the Conifers appears a little un- 
certain. 
§ Since writing the above, Prof. Williamson, in his Address at the 
British Association, has given aréswmé of this subject (‘ Nature,’ Sept. 20, 
1883). 
