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PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 20, 



The real affinities of Phylloiheca to existing plants are scarcely to 

 be detennined in the present state of our knowledge. It appears, 

 as Brongniart observes, to be nearly allied to the fossils called Aster o- 

 phyllites and Annidaria, and most probably also to Calamodendron, 

 Ad. Br., — all these having essentially similar characters of ramifica- 

 tion, with verticillated one-ribbed leaves. The position of the 

 branches shows that it cannot be nearly akin to Eqidsetacece. 

 McCoy's arguments to prove it a near ally of Casuarina, do not 

 appear to me conclusive. The catkin which he has figured as the 

 male, flowers (see his pi. 11. fig. 1), strikes me as agreeing well 

 enough in its general structure with the known fructification of 

 Asterophyllites and Annidaria (see Geinitz, ' Steinkohlenform. 

 Sachsen,' tab. 17. fig. 3, tab. 18. fig. 8, 9). No other kind of fructifi- 

 cation, as it seems, has yet been found in connexion with any Phyl- 

 lotJieca. If these plants belonged to the group of the Casuarina;, it 

 is hardly probable, abundant as they are, that some trace would not 

 have been found of the remarkable seed-vessels of that family. 



12. Vertebraria ? PI. XI. fig. 3. 



Some impressions in sandstone from Kampti, Tondakheiri, and 

 the Mahadewa Hills, and in bituminous shale from Barkoi, labelled 

 as " Vertebraria/' have certainly a prima facie resemblance to the 

 published figures of the Vert. Indiea, especially to that in McClel- 

 land's Report, tab. 14. fig. 1 ; but I can hardly reconcile the appear- 

 ances presented by these specimens with the structure described by 

 McCoy and De Zigno. The specimens indeed appear to be merely 

 impressions, consequently not showing a transverse fracture, nor 

 exhibiting anything of the radiated structure described in Verte- 

 braria. But the Kampti specimens are branched, a circumstance not 

 hitherto recorded in any Vertebraria ; and branched in a manner 

 which I cannot reconcile with the received explanation of the struc- 

 ture of that genus. Those from Tondakheiri and Mahadewa are 

 unbranched, but otherwise agree with those from Kampti. The stem 

 (or whatever the columnar body is to be called), is from \ to | inch 

 broad; along the centre of it runs what we must for convenience 

 call the axis, which in the best specimens (from Kampti) appears as 

 a deep narrow channel or furrow, but in some others as a ridge. 

 This is not straight and even, but more or less flexuous in direction, 

 and more or less widened out in some parts. From it proceed to each 

 side in an irregularly alternate order, and at very unequal distances, 

 what seem to be partitions, dividing the surface of the fossil on each 

 side of the axis into portions of various lengths. The surface 

 between these partitions is irregularly prominent or gibbous, and in 

 most of the specimens shows no decided traces of organic structure. 

 But in the largest specimen from Kampti, I observe appearances 

 which seem clearly to indicate a continuous cellular tissue, as of the 

 cuticle of a stem or root : the surface exhibits delicate but distinct 

 longitudinal lines, cross-barred by fainter aud veiy short transverse 

 ones ; the spaces between being a little raised. The appearance is 

 exactly that of an epidermis formed of narrow rectangular cells. 



