1853.] hooker volkmannia morrisii. 199 



December 14, 1853. 



The Rev. Prof. S. Haugliton, A.M., M.R.I.A., Prof. Isaac Newton 

 Loomis, M.D., the Rev. F. F. Statham, A.M., and S. Highley, Jun., 

 Esq., were elected Fellows. 



The foUovdng communications were read : — 



1. 0?^ a NEW SPECIES O/VOLKMANNIA. By J. D. HoOKER, 



M.D., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



[Plate VII.] 



The subject of the present communication is one of the most re- 

 markable of the many botanical puzzles presented in such abundance 

 by the shales of the Carboniferous period. It was procured by my 

 friend Mr. W. Gourlie*, of Glasgow, and forwarded to me with the 

 request that I would lay some account of it before the Geological 

 Society. As the specimen presented no characters by which its 

 botanical affinities could be determined positively, and as our fossil 

 flora is rapidly advancing towards the state of a chaos of synonymy, 

 I felt that my most prudent course was to exhibit the drawing and 

 specimen for several successive evenings at the Geological Society, 

 in the hope that some amongst our Fellows, more familiar with the 

 nomenclature of fossil botany than circumstances have, of late, 

 allowed of my becoming, might be able to point out the genus to 

 which it should be referred. Nor have I been disappointed ; for I 

 am indebted to Mr. Morris for indicating to me its very considerable 

 similarity to the genus Volkmanniaf of Sternberg, and its probable 

 identity with it. Mr. R. Jones, also, has referred me to a drawing 

 of a fragment of a fossil, apparently belonging to the same genus, 

 made under his own eye, for Dr. Johnston's 'Natural History of 

 the Eastern Borders,' and which is there given as Coniferites 1 ver- 

 ticillatus, Tate. 



The general appearance of the Carluke fossil is accurately repre- 

 sented in the accompanying drawing (PL VII.) : it consists of a 

 straight, undivided, apparently nearly cylindrical stem or termination 

 of a branch, 9 inches long, gradually tapering from \ to J-rd of an inch 

 in diameter (as compressed), interrupted by seventeen nodes or joints, 

 which bear each a series of tubercles. The internodes are grooved, 

 and diminish in length upwards ; the grooves alternate with the 

 tubercles, which appear to be placed on the intervening ridges : the 

 number of striae and tubercles is from ten to fifteen on each surface. 

 The lower transverse series of tubercles crosses obliquely the diameter 

 of the stem, as though indicating a spiral arraugement ; this, how- 

 ever, I do not doubt, is the eflFect of unequal pressure during fossili- 



* The fossil was discovered, Mr. Gourlie informs me, by Mr. ^Yilliam Grossart, 

 of Carluke, near that town, in the iroustone working, midway between the 

 Cannel-coal and Main -lime, and consequently at no great distance from the Old 

 Red Sandstone. 



t A Bohemian genus of fossils, which, to the best of my belief, has not hitherto 

 been recorded as British. 



