Notes on the Nevj Fossil^ Daivxonelix 9 



•still further enhances its interest, and increases the many 

 anomalies and perplexities, is the indisputable fact that the 

 self-same burrow was occupied by a plant whose nature is yet 

 to be determined. The entire surface of these fossils is one 

 tangle of ramifying, intertwining tubules, varying in diameter 

 from one sixty-fourth to one-eighth of an inch. Some are a 

 full fourth of an inch, although the average is about one thirty- 

 second of an inch. 



This structure can be seen in Plate II, (See also Plate YIII.) 

 and is characteristic of every specimen, and of every part of 

 each specimen; the transverse piece, as well as the spiral. 



The sand-rock in which they are encased is sufficiently co- 

 herent to make the task of collecting quite laborious. It has 

 to be picked and chiseled away slowly, but when the fossil is 

 cleaned as far as possible from the surrounding rock, it presents 

 to view an exterior made up entirely of pure white tubules 

 against a darker background. The author has now cut sections 

 of these tubules from every part of many specimens, and all 

 invariably show the same plant structure, such as is figured in 

 plates II, III, YIII, IX, XI. All these sections show a 

 structure that is cellular, but not vascular. The hypodermal 

 cells, as shown by some sections, are arranged in very nearly 

 regular radiating lines. As yet no central vascular cylinder 

 has been detected in any of the large number of sections 

 which have been cut. 



In the very first section of these corkscrews, ground when 

 the first specimen was found, this same plant structure was 

 detected, and described in a former paper. At that time it 

 seemed so impossible to believe it a plant that it was suggested 

 that possibly it was a modern rootlet which had found its 

 way down to these fossils. However, it seems to be an unmis- 

 takable truth that this structure pervades every portion of the 

 fossils. Of course, to arrive at any definite law or fa(?(^ re- 

 specting the structure, it would be necessary to prepare large 

 numbers of slides from every portion, inside and out, of these 



