﻿352 



PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [Mar. 20, 



the Oris bigarre of the European continent appears to have possessed 

 narrow leaves arranged in a verticel ; but our leaf and that from 

 Australia are broader, and agree better with the pinnae of a plant 

 from Burdwan, which is now in the British Museum. In that fossil 

 the pinnae resemble those of the larger specimens of Zamites distans, 

 only they are opposite, and not alternate as in Sternberg's species. 

 If I mistake not, its pinnae are characterized by 14-16 sub-parallel 

 veins, like our imperfect specimen. If it is not to be classed with 

 Zamites, to which it bears an obvious affinity, I think the old name 

 of ZeugophyUites should be continued for it as the most appropriate. 



The stems in our collection present peculiar difficulties. But it is 

 something to know that none of them belong to the Calamites of 

 the true Carboniferous series. Those that have been taken for such 

 appear chiefly to belong to the genus Phyllotheca, which has recently 

 been discovered by De Zigno in the Lower Oolite of the Yenetian 

 Alps. I am persuaded that, were the foliage of the sulcated stems 

 from Eastern Virginia obtained, some of them which agree in all 

 respects with our leafless stems of Phyllotheca* would be ascer- 

 tained to belong to this genus, which so abounds in the rocks of New 

 South "Wales, India, and Northern Italy. Another of our stems, not 

 furrowed however, but ribbed, which was found by my friend Mr. 

 Hunter at SilewMa, and is distinguished by its deciduous disks near 

 the joint, is evidently related to the Equisetites lateralis from the 

 Oolite of Scarborough. At Mangali there occur two stems, which, if 

 I may judge from description alone, resemble two met with in the 

 Virginian coal-field ; one apparently being a Knorria, and the other 

 probably having some connexion with the fossil which Sir C. J. 

 Bunbury compares with SigiUaria or Aspidiaria Menardi f. 



In speaking of some reticulated, simple, entire leaves brought to 

 light by Dr. Bell, I have ventured to suggest that they were most 

 probably fronds of Ferns, as dicotyledonous leaves of that form are 

 not known below the Eocene. I am inclined, however, to believe 

 that exogenoxis plants did exist at the period in question. At Sile- 

 wa7?a there is an abundance of stems of considerable size, which have 

 lost their woody structure, but seem to have possessed bark striated 

 obliquely upwards from left to right. In addition to this external 

 marking, most of our specimens exhibit the cicatrices of leaves, and 

 in one case there is a round sprouting bud left after the foot-stalk 

 has fallen off. Some of the scars are longitudinal, others are trans- 

 verse, but all are sparsely distributed over the stem. The transverse 

 scars slightly resemble those left on the trunk of the Papaw ( Garica 

 Papaya), if the resemblance were to hold good also as to the soft 

 nature of the wood, we could easily understand how it is that the 

 trees now referred to present to us nothing but the bark. But, 

 whether those bearing merely scars are to be ranked as exogens or 

 not, I must submit, with all deference, that the stem with the round 

 bud belongs to that division of the vegetable kingdom. And if so, 

 it would add to the proof which I have brought forward, that the 



* e. g. Calamites planicosfatus, Trans. Amer. Geol. Soc. 1840-2. 

 t Quart. Journ. Gteol. Soc, vol. iii. p. 286. 



