76 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY. [May 20, 



The above species all occur (with the exception of the Lycopodites 

 Milleri, which is only yet known at Thurso) as well in the Orkneys 

 as at Caithness. Both the Lepidodendron and the linear root-like 

 branches are found in Dale and Viewan quarries at Stromness, 

 Miram Blaw, and near Frith, Orkney. The large stem-like bodies 

 and curved roots are also found with them. These were sent by 

 Dr. Hamilton and Mr. Peach. The best examples, however, were 

 found in the flag-quarries at Thurso, and are in Mr. Miller's collec- 

 tion, and most of our figures are from his specimens. 



Mr. C. W. Peach has for some years been diligently searching for 

 these plants, and has sent up some 70 specimens from Kilminster, 

 near Wick, which comprise only the smaller species. 



We have here therefore the fragments of a flora, which may at 

 least be compared with that discovered in the Thuringer Wald by 

 M. Richter, and which has been so beautifully illustrated by Prof. 

 Unger in the work above quoted. Though not so numerous in 

 species, yet the Scotch collections contain some forms of larger size, 

 indicating a vegetation of considerable importance at an era so far 

 back as that of the Middle Devonian. Prof. Unger' s plants, which 

 he has spoken of as being of a totally new type, and in some 

 respects a prototype of succeeding floras *, are from the Cypridina- 

 schist, or Upper Devonian of Germany, strata which are believed to 

 be of younger age than those described by Mr. Hugh Miller, and 

 plants from which are here figured. 



The discovery f by Mr. Strickland and Dr. Hooker of spores of a 

 Lycopodiaceous plant in the passage-beds between the Old Red Sand- 

 stone and Ludlow Rock (to which I lately added, during a visit to 

 Ludlow, branched fragments of the stems %) is a sufficient indication 

 that we have to make out the characters of a still more antique vege- 

 tation, of which, to judge from the fragmentary evidence yet ob- 

 tained, the characters were not altogether unlike those of later 

 palaeozoic times. 



The strata from which the fossils above enumerated were obtained 

 have been long ago described, and their relative age determined by 

 the labours of Prof. Sedgwick and Sir R. Murchison || . They are 

 regarded by these authors as part of the Middle Devonian rocks, 

 while in Hugh Miller's classification they stand as part of his Lower 

 Division. Dipterus and Diplopterus are the prevailing genera of 

 fish that accompany the plants. 



Note on the Plant-bearing Devonian Beds of Caithness. 

 By John Miller, Esq., of Thurso. 



The fossiliferous beds of the Old Red Sandstone of Caithness form 

 by far the larger part of the area of that county. Along the whole 



* * Siluria,' 1st ed., p. 358. 

 t Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. ix. p. ] &c. 



X It is to be regretted that these small branched specimens, which were ^rd of 

 an inch thick, were lost before they could be fully examined in London. 

 || Geol. Trans. 2nd Ser., vol. iii. p. 125 &c. 



