LYCOPODIACEOUS PLANTS FROM THE NORTH OF SCOTLAND. 325 
with those figured and described by Salter in the pegs volume of 
the Journal, and by Miller in his various publicat I do not of 
that 
in hb 
fossil Ld leoiay (6 af pidodendron, from the Scottis 
In the same paper Dr. Dawson gives the prise name 1¢ Psilophyton 
to some small Lycopodiaceous plants, from the same strata as his 
Lepidodendron Gaspianum; but as he has never given a diagnosis of 
the genus, I am unable to discover, in the published deaotipticms of the 
four species included in it, the points which he found them to possess 
in common, and which justitied their being grouped in one genus. 
The species named P. princeps was apparently a humble Lycopod 
Its stem was ea below with tegen short rigid 
leaves spir ally arranged, while the upper branches were almost ng 
not altogether Lesttbei, abi repens gen aaclowpinoonle? wi 
the tips sometimes rolled up in a circinnate manner. The long, Tulane 
simple leaf-bearing branches of this Galindo tics indicate a different 
species from the Scottish plant, but in other respects the plants agree. 
d in their vegetative characters as well as in their size they agree 
with several living Lycopodia. Thus Lyicuibibeh densum from Tas- 
mania has an erect stem with short lateral branches, which ultimatley 
divide in a dichotomous manner. This is the character also of the 
European L. complanatum, of the widely-distributed Z. cernuum, and of 
many others. The paucity and in some cases almost absence of leaves 
from the fruit-bearing branches of chow species which have their fruit in 
stalked cones is fi many species as in the common ZL. elavatum. 
any 
common to all the species included under Psilophyton, no better gene 
distinction could be oan but while ea re amount of agree eer orxiatl 
in the ster mga of the sporangia of P. princeps and P ius, 
said to occur “in groups of small, broadly oval scales, borne on 
the main stem below the points of bifurcation.” Ido not profess to 
understand this description, but whatever it means, it is obviously 
very different from what is known in the other two. ave seen no 
satisfactory remains of fructification i = any British specimen, but the 
specimens of P. princeps presented by Dr. Dawson to the British 
Museum 7 substantiate the ones of his description of the fruits 
of that sp 
The g peua ‘may be thus characterised :— 
Psilophyton, cr esa Sporangia oval, naked, opening by 8 
lateral slit, borne in pairs at the termination of the ultim 
branches; stem bets low (probably from 2 to 4 feet high), springing 
from a creeping rootstock (or from stigmarioid roots?), branching 
irregularly below, and aceipeaennay above ; leaves lanceolate, acute, 
