THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



No. XCII.— FEBRUARY, 1872. 



I. — Notes on some Fossil Plants. 

 By William Carruthers, F.R.S., etc. 

 (PLATE II.) 



IT is known that the friends of the late distinguished paleeonto- 

 logist and naturalist, Hugh Falconer, established a Fellowship 

 in memory of himself, and in connexion with the University of 

 Edinburgh. This Fellowship is especially intended to encourage 

 the study of palgeontology. To give to botanical students who may 

 devote their attention to the investigation of fossil plants a fair 

 opportunity of securing a Falconer Fellowship, Professor Balfour 

 intends, as he informs me, to devote more time in his lectures to 

 vegetable palaeontology, and he has prepared a carefully revised and 

 enlarged edition of that portion of his Class-book devoted to this 

 subject,, which will be published separately, and will supply a long 

 desiderated manual, not only to the students of his own class, but to 

 students in all institutions in which botany is treated in a scientific 

 method. Having obtained Prof Balfour's permission to use one of 

 the plates and some wood-cuts which have been prepared under my 

 direction, to illustrate this separate publication, I now employ them 

 for the purpose of recording some notes bearing upon the subjects 

 figured, and which I have not yet published. 



1. Palceopteris Hibermca, Schimper. 



The Plate selected is devoted to fossil Ferns. The principal 

 figure is a restoration of a frond of the Devonian Fern, first recognized 

 in the Yellow Sandstones of the South of Ireland, and named by 

 Edward Forbes Cyclo-pteris ITibernica (Brit. Assoc. Eep., 1852, p. 43). 

 He observed that it did not belong to Brongniart's limited genus 

 Cyclopteris, but that its large bipinnate fronds had the aspect of a 

 Neuropteris. In a letter from Brongniart to Sir Eichard Griifith, 

 published in 1857 (Nat. Hist. Kev., vol. iv. Proc. Soc, p. 215), the 

 writer points out the affinities of the Fern to the species included in 

 the genus Adiantites, but adds that it is so different from the other 

 species that it forms perhaps a distinct genus. The discovery of 

 fertile specimens finally established the generic distinctness of the 



VOL. IX.— NO, XCII. 4. 



