TRANSACTIONS OF THE SECTIONS. 99 



which has heen described by Professor llaughtoii under the name of Cyclostigma ; 

 others have been named Lepidodendrori Griffitka and minutum by M. Adolphe 

 Brongniart : there are several additional interesting forms, and these it is intended 

 shortly to describe in the publications of the Geological Survey of Ireland. 



Of the new fern, Spfienqpteria Houkeri, which formed the subject of this com- 

 munication, two specimens only were obtained, both of which were fragmentary, 

 although, like the other fossils from this locality, very beautifully preserved. It 

 was described as having a slender rachis or stalk, from which, at intervals of from 

 one to one and a half inch, diverged branches, subdivided into branchlets, the 

 second of these branchlets rising to a height of nearly three inches from the central 

 portion of the branch ; the leaves are bipinnate, and the leaflets divided into three 

 and four segments, each of these being again subdivided into two or three obtuse 

 segments, broadest at their terminations and marked by two branching and forked 

 Veins. It is one of the narrow-leaved Sphenopterides, and nearly allied to Spheno- 

 pteris linearis, Sternberg, from the Coal-measures of Bohemia and Edinburgh, but 

 differs in several important particulars ; the species is dedicated to Dr. JosephDalton 

 Hooker, distinguished as an authority on both recent and fossil botany. 



The Ichthyolites or fish remains found in the same quarry, at about three feet 

 from the surface, were imbedded in a highly indurated sandstone of a coarser cha- 

 racter than that which contained the ferns ; they consisted principally of the osseous 

 plates of ganoid fishes belonging to the Cephalaspides, the majority of them being 

 referred to Coccosteus ; there are others, however, belonging to the genera Astero- 

 lepis, JBothriofrpis, and probably Pterichthys. Two detached teeth were the only 

 remains of a dental character observed, both being conical and ridged ; they appear 

 closely to resemble M. Agassiz's figures of the larger teeth of Bol/iriolepis, a genus 

 of the same Ccelacanth family, to which one of the plates may perhaps also belong. 



To the discovery of these characteristic Old Red Sandstone fish in Ireland, great 

 interest is attached, as a means of determining the position of strata in that country, 

 which has been hitherto somewhat obscure. Their remains being accompanied by 

 the magnificent fossil ferns before mentioned, and other terrestrial plants, together 

 with the Anodonta Jukesii, a large bivalve shell, closely allied to the freshwater Unios 

 of the present day, and a crustacean, Eurypterus Scouleri, woidd appear to indicate 

 the deposit in which they are imbedded to have been of freshwater origin; and when 

 the investigation into the history of this important assemblage of organic forms is 

 more fully carried out, as it is intended, the results will doubtless add to our know- 

 ledge of the conditions under which these strange forms of fish and Crustacea existed 

 during the later period of the Old Eed Sandstone ; a formation to which, in Scot- 

 land, a classical interest has been given by the vivid descriptions of the late Hugh 

 Miller. - 



Notice of a Bone Cave near Montrose. 

 By William Beattie, Hon. Sec. Montrose Nat. Hist, and Antiq. Soc. 



This cave, in the parish of St. Cyrus, County of Kincardine, is situated near the 

 mouth of the river North Esk, in that range of trap rocks extending eastward from 

 the Northwater Bridge, on the Aberdeen road, to the cliff's of St. Cyrus — the base 

 of the cave being at present 10 or 12 feet above the level of the sea, from which it 

 is distant nearly a mile, and from the nearest point of the river North Esk about 

 half as much. The entrance to the cave is through a hard compact rock of trap, 

 and measures 12 feet wide by 5 high. On entering, the cavity suddenly widens- 

 out to the breadth of 20 feet, with a height varying from 20 to 30, the whole 

 having been crammed to the roof with a deposit of tine dark loamy soil, contain- 

 ing a variety of organic remains. It was evident that the work of excavation had 

 been carried on for some time, and we discovered evidences that, to the farmer 

 Mr. Walker, the cave had proved a regular bed of guano, fertilizing his soil and 

 improving his crops. In his operations, however, many of the fossil remains had 

 been allowed to be taken away ; still the almost perpendicular section left standing 

 afforded ample field for inquiry and speculation. The bottom, or floor, consisted 

 of rolled stones, or sea beach, in some places mixed or covered with stalagmitic 

 concretion several inches thick. The lowest stratum, 3 feet thick, was composed 

 of dark loam, with a mixture of decayed shells, principally of the MytUus edulis. 



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