464 TRANSACTIONS OF SECTION C. 
seen in the shales. Some of the rocks are a crushed mass of black shale and 
cherty material. The beds are often distinctly brecciated. f 
Remains of Radiolaria discovered by Dr. Peach some years ago in cherts near 
Gualann. Recently a number of fossils have been found in pale-grey chert bands, 
1 to 3 inches thick, in an exposure on §.E. side of the Bofrishlie Burn, about 
400 yards N.W. of Arndrum, The fossils occur in muddy films in the chert. 
Belt here only 300 to 350 feet wide. Some of the shales and cherts are thrust 
over the disrupted edges of the bands which have yielded fossils. A little N.W. 
the cherts are brecciated, and courses of grit occur in the black shales, also 
showing signs of brecciation. Some calcareous bands occur in the shales in the 
bed of the stream. ‘The fossils are almost all hingeless brachiopods and the 
following forms have been determined by Dr. Peach :— 
Acrotreta, sp.; Lingulella, sp.;? Obolus, sp.; Obolella, sp.; also the flattened 
cheetee of Polychaete worms. 
The fossils indicate that the Series is probably of Upper Cambrian Age. 
5. On lhe Nature of Parka decipiens. By ArcutpaLp W. R. Don, B.A. 
This paper was the outcome of an attempted re-investigation of Parka, 
chiefly microscopical, with the aid of Schultz’s solution (strong nitric acid and 
potassium chlorate). Being the only common and quite the most characteristic 
fossil of the Lower Old Red Sandstone of the Kincardine-Forfar-Perth area, it 
has naturally attracted considerable attention. The nature of Parka has been 
a subject of speculation ever since its discovery at Parkhill in 1831 by Dr. 
Fleming. He described it as probably allied to Juncus or Sparganium, and 
Hugh Miller, on the whole, agreed as to its vegetable nature. Mantell stoutly 
maintained it to be ‘batrachian eggs.’ Lyell thought it the egg-packet of 
Pterygotus, and this determination was accepted by Salter, Woodward, Powrie, 
and others. In 1890, however, Messrs. Reid, Graham, and Macnair, haying con- 
vinced themselves of its vegetable nature, sent specimens to Sir W. Dawson, who, 
with Professor Penhallow, submitted it to a microscopical examination. They 
clearly showed it to be vegetable, and, after boiling it in nitric acid, demon- 
strated the presence of spores within the carbonised tissue. 
The conclusions, other than this main one, arrived at by former investigators 
have not as yet been confirmed by the present re-examination, the chief results 
of which, therefore, tend unfortunately to be more destructive than constructive. 
Hitherto no evidence for heterospory has appeared. The ‘ prothalli’ have not 
been found. The mode of attachment and other vegetative features have not 
been elucidated, and an agnostic attitude is assumed, pending further dis- 
coveries, with regard to those formerly attributed to Parla. No evidence has 
appeared with regard to the supposed varieties ‘media’ and ‘minor.’ An 
attempt, admittedly tentative, has been made to form some conception of the 
original structure and shape of Parka, based on examination of certain excel- 
lently preserved impressions of its two surfaces. The main conclusion is that 
the original spore-containing tissue was almost flat, not spherical (and made up 
of numerous adjacent lens-shaped spore-sacs)—a structure, in fact, in no way 
comparable to anything Hydropteridian, and unlike any known sporangia of to- 
day. There was, certainly, intimately connected with it a so-called ‘indusium.’ 
Such a reconstruction must, however, be understood to be hypothetical, and not 
an ascertained fact. Certain cell-layers and tissues revealed by the more gentle 
action of the Schultz’s solution may, however, help towards an ultimate solution 
of the perennial problem of Parka decipiens. 
6. Uncharted Volcanic Necks at St. Andrews. 
By Joun H. Wiuson. 
Report on the Erratic Blocks of the British Isles. 
See Reports, p, 132. 
~] 
