506 Scientific Proceedings, Royal Dublin Society. .■ 



The Kiltorcan beds had aroused increased interest owing to the startling 

 discovery of 0. Heer, made in 1870 from the examination of material gathered 

 in 1868, that certain fossil-beds iu Bear Island (74°N.) were contemporaneous 

 with the Kiltorcan beds, and contained plants and animals identical' with 

 them. Heer concluded, erroneously, that the beds in both localities represented 

 a stage which he called the Ursa stage, intercalated between the Devonian 

 and the Lower Carboniferous. His contribution to the subject is mainly 

 valuable for the evidence he produces in support of his now accepted views of 

 the contemporaneity and similarity of flora (and fauna) of the beds of these 

 two (and other) widely separated localities. He adds little or nothing to the 

 knowledge of the structure of the fossil plants themselves. Much of his 

 subject-matter underwent a much-needed revision at the hands of Nathorst iu 

 1894, and still more in 1902. 



In 1886 Kidston pointed out for the first time (16) that the leaf-scars of 

 Bothrodendron kiltorkense showed the three scars which are typical of a 

 Lepidophyte. This observation was confirmed by Nathorst in material from 

 Kiltorcan and from Bear Island ; and I have frequently seen the three scars 



Fig. 3. rig.'4. 



Fig. 3. — Fully formed leaf-scar of Bothrodendron kiltorkense, showing the usual 



lepidophyte characters. 



Fig. i. — Leaf-scar on young stem of Bothrodendron kiltorkense. 



in Irish specimens (Plate XXX YII, fig. 4). B. kiltorkense diifers from other 

 Lepidophytes, and even from other species of Bothrodendron (e.g., B. puncta- 

 tutn, B. minutifoKiim, B. %cickianum) in the obscurity or almost general absence 

 of indications of a ligular scar. I have spent considerable time in examining 

 many specimeas, and in the majority of cases have seen nothing that could 

 be described as clearly indicative of the ligular scars. In some cases, and 

 particularly in one well-preserved specimen in the Geological Museum of 

 Trinity College, Dublin, I have seen leaf-scars as figured (figs. 3 and 4). It 

 seems justifiable to regard the scar indicated as the ligular scar. Grenerally 

 speaking, however, the leaf-sear is not accompanied by any reliable sign of 

 the presence of a ligular scar ; and it is possible that B. kiltorkense, unlike 

 B. mundtim, is eligulate like Lycopodium. Many of the specimens of 

 Kiltorcan are beautifully preserved. The plants grew perhaps where they 



' Heer states that Geinitz first called his attention to the identity of the Bothrodendrons of Kiltorcan 

 and Bear Island. 



