Miscellanea. 333 



the carboniferous rocks of Britain, many of them not being found 

 in any higher series, and several of tliem not being Itnown in any 

 older deposits, so that the age, even if we only look to the genera of 

 the fossils, is clearly limited to the carboniferous period; but when 

 we descend to the critical examination of species, we find so extra- 

 ordinary and unexpected an amount of agreement between those 

 beds and the similar shales, sandstones and impure limestones 

 forming the base of the carboniferous system in Ireland, that it is 

 impossible not to believe them to be nearly on the same parallel, 

 and there is equal difficulty in imagining them to be either younger 

 or older than those deposits. Of those species no less than eleven 

 are believed to be positively identical, on the most careful comparison 

 of the Australian and Irish specimens, and nine more are so closely 

 allied that it has been found impossible to detect any difference of 

 character, but which, either from imperfect preservation or want of 

 sufficient specimens to display all the characters, have not been 

 specifically identified. With such evidence as I have mentioned, I 

 do not think it improbable that a wide geological interval occurred 

 between the consolidation of the fossiliferous beds which underlie 

 the coal, and the deposition of the coal-measures themselves ; that 

 there is no real connexion between them, but that they belong to 

 widely different geological systems, the former referable to the base 

 of the carboniferous system, the latter to the oolitic, and neither 

 showing the slightest tendency to a confusion of type. 



EXPLANATION OF PLATES IX to XVIL 



Plate IX. 

 Fiff. 1. Vertebraria australis (.MCoy). 

 Fig. "2. Otopteris ovata (M' Coy). 

 Fig. 3. Cyclopteris angustifolia (M'Coy). 

 Fig. 3 a. Meuration of ditto magnified. 

 Fig. 4. Sphenopteris flexuosa {M'Coy^. 

 Fig. 4 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified to show the neuration. 

 Fig. 5. Giossopteris linearis (_M'Cog). 

 Fig. 5 a. Neuration of ditto magnified. 

 Fig. 6. Pecopteris (?) tenuifolia {M'Coy). 



Plate X, 



Fig. 1. Sphenopteris hastata (Af' Coy). 

 Fig. 1 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified. 

 Fig. 2. Sphenopteris germana (iVf' Coy). 

 Fig. 2 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified. 

 Fig. 3. Sphenopteris plumosa (^M'Coy). 

 Fig. 3 a. Pinnule of ditto magnified. 



Plate XI. 

 Fig. 1. Inflorescence of Phyllotheca. 

 Fig. 2. Phyllotheca ramosa {M'Coy). 

 Fig. 3. Decorticated stem wiih scar of branch. 

 Figs. 4 & 5, Phyllotheca Hookeri (M' Coy). 

 Fig. 6. Magnified part of leaf of ditto to show the midrib. 

 Fig. 7. Stems of ditto, without their sheath, to siiow their sulcation. 

 i^/fif. 8. Cladochonus tenuicollis (M'Coy). Lower figure magnified. 

 Fig. 9. Strorabodes (?) australis {M'Coy). 



Plate XII. 

 Fig. la. Brachymetopus Strzeleckii (M'Coy)x head natural size and mag- 

 nified. 

 Fig. 1 b. Ditto, pygydium natural size and magnified. 

 Fig. 2 a §• 6. Tribrachyocrinus Clarkii {M'Coy). 

 Fig, 2 c. Plates of ditto expanded. 



