120 THE OLDEE MESOZOIC FLORA OF VIRGINIA. 



succulent, and had the nature of stems, not of leaves. I have considered 

 them to be rhizomes of some plant which spread and ramified in the soft 

 mud of the period. This plant of Emmons is evidently stem-like, with 

 branches. I cannot offer any explanation of its true nature. The Virginia 

 specimens, the only original ones that I have seen, are even more vague 

 than Emmons's plant. 



Another peculiar plant is given by Emmons in fig. 100 (Plate LII, 

 Fig. 1 of this work). He says: 



" It occurs in the slate at Lockville. It is a simple strap-like leaf, which is finely 

 striate. The specimen from which the drawing was taken was about 14 inches long, 

 and broken at both ends. It is smooth, or under the microscope appears finely striate." 



Another plant apparently of the same nature, which, as it appears to 

 me, has accidentally superposed upon it a fragment of stem, is given by 

 Emmons in fig. 101. Emmons thinks that the apparent stem is a real one. 

 Both this and the preceding plant appear to be leaves of a grass-like form, 

 perhaps of the kind named Bambusium, but without the originals it is im- 

 possible to come to any definite conclusion about them. For convenience 

 of reference they may be denominated Bambusium Carolinense. Still 

 another undetermined plant is given by Emmons in fig. 102 (Plate LI, 

 Fig. 8 of this work). This, Emmons says, "resembles Baiera gracilis, or 

 the plant referred to Baiera doubtingly by Professor Bunbury in the ' Quar- 

 terly Journal Geological Society.'" 



This is clearly a Baiera, much smaller than the Baiera multifida. I have 

 not seen Bunbury's figure, and hence cannot verify Emmons's comparison 

 of it with Bunbury's plant. The plant now in question is much like Baiera 

 Miinsteriana, Sap., or Jeanpaulia Micnsteriana, Ung., from the Rhaetic of Ger- 

 many, and is no doubt the same plant. This plant, formerly called Jean- 

 paulia, is now considered by Saporta and Heer to be a Baiera. 



Sphenogloasum quadrifoliatum. 

 Plate LII, Fig. 3. 

 Emmons's "Am. Geol.," p. 134, plate 5, fig. 2. 



"Leaves short, wedge-formed, or subtriangular, marked with striae radiating from 

 the center, arranged in twos or fours around the stem or support. The leaves have 

 divergent margins, and are marked with unequal or divergent lines. Stem quadran- 

 gular? Many specimens were found in the upper marly sandstone, some single, some 



