216 R. L. JACK AND R. ETHER1DGE, JTJX., OX PLANTS 



the Sequence of the Strata in the Old-Red-Sandstone series of 

 South Perthshire" (Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. xviii. p. 253, read 

 16 April, 1862). This paper will be afterwards referred to. 



In the fourth edition of ' Siluria,' published in 1867, Sir R. I. 

 Murchison gave figures of the chief vegetable remains of the Scotch 

 Old Red*. The longitudinally fluted stems mentioned by previous 

 writers as common throughout the formation were microscopically 

 examined by Prof. Quekett, and found to exhibit true coniferous 

 structure, approaching that of the Araucarian group. 



Mr. W. P. M'Nab communicatedf his researches into the structure 

 of Hugh Miller's Cromarty lignite, which had been previously ex- 

 amined by Prof. Xicoll. Mr. M'Xab pronounces the structure ex- 

 hibited by these sections to be allied to the Coniferae, but not refer- 

 able either to Dadoxylon or Dictyoceylon, as surmised by Mr. Salter: 

 he proposes the name of Pcdcvopitys Milleri for the Cromarty lignite, 

 and pronounces it distinct from the coniferous wood examined by 

 Prof. Quekett for Sir P. I. Murchison. 



The welcome appearance, in 1871, of Dr. J.W. Dawson's monograph 

 of the Devonian and Silurian plants of Canada j, published by the 

 Geological Survey of Canada, not only afforded botanists an oppor- 

 tunity of becoming acquainted with the British-Xorth-American 

 fossil flora of those periods in a collective form, but, what was of 

 equal importance, put us in possession of Dr. Dawson's notes on 

 Mr. C. W. Peach's extensive collection of Scotch Old-Red plants. 

 En the latter, Dr. Dawson noticed two species of Psilopliyton, one 

 allied to- P. prineeps, Dn., the other to P. robustius, Dn. There are 

 three species of Lepidodendron : one, perhaps L. notlium, Salter, Dr. 

 Dawson considers closely allied to his L. gaspianum ; the second is 

 allied to Cyclostigma densifolium, Dn. ; and the third, that described 

 by Salter as Lycopodites Milleri, he considers an herbaceous plant. 

 The collection also contains a Cyclopteris (allied to C. Broivnii, Dn.), 

 a Calamites (near C. transitionis, Dn.), Stigmaria, bark of iSigillaria, 

 a plant probably allied to Anarthrocanna , and pieces of Coniferae §. 



In 1872, Mr. C. W. Peach delivered a Presidential Address to the 

 Royal Physical Society of Edinburgh, " On the Fossil Flora of the 

 Old Red Sandstone of the Xorth of Scotland," when drawings of all 

 the discovered forms were exhibited. In the ' Journal of Botany ' for 

 1873 Mr. Carruthers gave a paper " On some Lycopodiaceous plants 

 from the Old Red Sandstone of the North of Scotland." He there 

 refers the fragments figured by Miller, on plate vii. of the ' Old Red 

 Sandstone,' to Dawson's Psilophyton, and proves that the coniferous 

 rootlets of Salter are really the upper branches of his Lepidodendron 

 nothum and Lycopodites Milleri, all of which Carruthers considers 

 identical with Psilopliyton (IJaliserites) Dechenianus, Gbppert ; 

 further, Caulopteris Peachii, Salter, is probably a fragment of a large 

 plant allied to Psilopliyton robustius, Dn. 



* Op. cit. p. 269, foss. 73. t Trans. Bot. Soc. Edinb. 1870, x. p. 312. 



% The Fossil plants of the Devonian and Upper Silurian Formations of 



Canada, pp. 92, pis. xx. 8vo. Montreal, 1871. 

 § Op. rif. p. 77. 



