1858.] 



MIJECHISON NOETHERN HIGHLANDS, ETC. 



407 



or a species very like it; a Lycopodites, 3, with long prostrate stems and secund 

 or one-sided foliage, like that of the common Lycopodium clavatum. This last 

 may of course be of quite a different natural order, and even coniferous ; but its 

 general resemblance alone is implied in the name. 



Linear branched or dichotomous fragments, some of them smooth (i, 2) and 

 destitute of all markings, have also been found, whilst others, like them, are 

 covered with small tubercles in quincunx order, and are probably the roots of 

 the Lepidodendron, 4. 



The probabihty of the smooth forms, i, being also roots, is very strong. 

 Similar bodies occur in beds of the Upper Devonian series in N. Devon and the 

 South of Ireland, and in such a position with regard to the fluted stems of 

 Knorria, with which they are associated, as to lead to the belief that they are the 

 rootlets of that plant. The larger ones have even markings similar to those of the 

 main stem. 



This probability is strengthened by finding similar linear specimens with 

 them, which bear tubercles or excrescences at their tips and along their sides very 

 like those on the roots of Leguminous plants and many of the Conifers. The 

 latter is the more probable analogy. 



Hugh Miller has, indeed, figxired a similar fossil as probably belonging to an 

 ancient marine plant resembhng the Zostera, and has reasonably speculated on 

 the existence of wide fields of such vegetation on the muddy shores of the Old 

 Red period. But our more perfect specimens justify the belief above-stated ; and 

 as yet there is no evidence of any marine plant in the Caithness schists. The 

 vegetable remains have evidently been swept from adjacent lands into the sea 

 inhabited by the fishes above-mentioned. 



Fig. 13. — Fossil Plant-remains from the Old Red Sandstone of Caithness. 

 (From ' Siluria,' new edit. p. 290.) 



/ 1 . Branched rootlets of some Lycopodiaceous ? plant. 2. Dichotomous roots 

 \ ery common) of Lepidodendron ?, upon a surface marked with double annelide- 

 urrows. 3. Lycopodites Milleri, Salter ; one-third nat. size. 4. Lepidodendron 

 nothum, linger ?, one-third nat. size. 5. Flattened root, and 6. Fluted stem, of 

 Coniferous tree, about one-sixth nat. size. 



A fossil plant very recently found diJffers from any one hitherto 

 published, and is so peculiar, from the rectangular setting-on of its 

 lateral branches, that it is here figured ; and, though its genus is 



