394 REPORTS ON THE STATE OF SCIENCE, ETC. 



The Old Red Sandstone Rocks of Kiltorcan, Ireland. — Report of 

 Committee (Mr. W. B. Wright, Chairman ; Prof. T. Johnson, 

 Secretary ; Dr. W. A. Bell, Dr. J. W. Evans, C.B.E., F.E.S., Prof. 

 W. H. Lang, F.R.S., Sir A. Smith Woodaed, F.R.S.). Drawn up by 

 the Secretary. 



The difficulty under which the investigation of the Upper Devonian Plants of 

 Kiltorcan, Co. Kilkenny, has been conducted will be reahsed when it is mentioned 

 that it is only within the last few months that many of the specimens of 1914 have 

 become available for inspection, owing to the occupation by the authorities (civil 

 and miUtary) of the botanical division of the college. Summary ejection prevented 

 the removal of the material. In consequence only such material as could be sent 

 up by the quarryman has been examined, and comparison with stored material was 

 impossible. 



The results of examination of material show that the contents of the quarry are 

 not exhausted, and as the beds are steadily disappearing as road-repairing material 

 (a sin according to the late Dr. Kidston) it will soon be too late to get further 

 supplies. It is necessary either to purchase the site and stop the exploitation (there 

 is plenty of ordinary road stone available) or to arrange to make an exploration of 

 the quarry, lasting a week or two with two or three quarrymen at work. The quarry- 

 man is naturally unable to pick out special specimens required or revealed, and sends 

 up much ordinary Archceopteris and Bothrodendron. Specimens of these are still 

 available for free distribution to any institution or authority interested. 



Archceopteris hibernica. — Considerable advance in the examination of this genus 

 can be reported. The discovery of fertile fronds, hitherto found alwaj's detached, 07i a 

 stem, as the photograph shows, is of importance. There are in all about fourteen 

 fronds, partly sterile, attached to the stem. They do not form a terminal rosette, but 

 appear as if the stem impression had been split obliquely. The stem is 2-3 cm. wide, 

 shows a pith apparently, and is pericaulomic. The frond has a polydesmic petiole, 

 adnate stipules and ramenta, often seen in edge only as a fine line just above the 

 stipules. The pinnule of the bipennate leaf, 5 feet long, is triangular-rhomboidal, 

 3x1 cm., and in favourable cases shows a flabellate venation which is as pronounced 

 as that of Ginkgo. The pinnule is attenuated, sub-sessile and decurrent. The forking 

 veins in two groups in the lamina unite into one main vein entering the rachidule 

 usually. Knowledge of this venation is necessary to understand the fertile state, 

 as there are to be found all stages of transition from the purely vegetative pinnule 

 to the completely fertile one. The sporangium is a lineal or oval body 2x -5 mm. on 

 an average, on a vascular stalk. It shows, in favourable cases, a longitudinal striation 

 (vascular in part?) and dehisces longitudinally. There are cases where it appears 

 transversely barred or septate, but the conclusion I am forced to is that this condition 

 is artificial. 



Restoration shows two kinds of spores : one — 50[i. in diameter — with pitted wall 

 and a round-triangular shape ; the other kind is spherical, smooth-walled and only 

 20[i. in size. These two kinds were obtained from several restored specimens, and I 

 am led to conclude that Archceopteris was not a pteridosperm but a heterosporous 

 fern, with megaspores and microspores, that it had the habit of a tree-fern and not of 

 a,Marattia or Angiopteris, spite of stipule, with a climbing habit, if certain stems found 

 at Kiltorcan are rightly attributed to it. 



The other most interesting addition is the discovery of several specimens in a 

 fertile state, which remind me forcibly of the Dimeripteris of Schmalhausen from the 

 Devonian Donetz beds in Russia. The photograph shows a ribbon-Like, repeatedly 

 forked body, the ultimate forks showing ovate or club-shaped sporangia at the ends 

 of the prongs. These sporangia yield spores of two kinds, scarcely distinguishable 

 from those of Archceopteris. Occasionally one sees signs of sterile pinnules suggestive 

 of Sphenopteris Hookeri, but for the present it is better to call the specimens 

 Dimeripteris hibernicus. The small round sporangia associated with the seed-impres- 

 sions of Spermolithus devonicvs have yielded spores. I cannot yet assign this fertile 

 state to any known genus. 



I have been steadily at work, as far as our disturbed state allowed, since 1916, 

 at the Washing Bay and other localities yielding Tertiary Plants, and hope to be in 

 a position soon to publish results. 



