Physical Structure and older stratified Deposits of Devonshire. 683 



combe, to whose exertions we have already alluded*. He forwarded to us, 

 several months since, a few stems of plants from Sloly quarries, accompanied 

 by casts of shells from the sandstone rocks of Marwood ; and had this memoir 

 not been unavoidably retarded, we should have announced his discovery at the 

 commencement of the year. Meanwhile, however, the Rev. D.Williams having- 

 revisited the same locality, has procured a more abundant and perfect supply 

 of fossil plants from it, which he has sent to the Geological Society to illus- 

 trate a memoir of his own; and he has kindly permitted us to examine them. 

 On referring these plants to Professor Lindley, we were favoured by him with 

 the following opinion : — 



" I am of opinion that these remains are not susceptible o{ specific identification; you can only 

 approximate to their determination : 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, are probably portions of the same species, and 

 are undoubtedly a Sligmaria or a Lepidodendron ; the absence of all trace of a hollow axis, and 

 the similarity of their surface to that of decorticated Lepidodendra, induce me to decide for the 

 latter. 



6. Is probably another portion of the same plant; but this is uncertain. 



7. Is more analogous to some states of Sternbergia than to any other fossil I am acquainted 

 with. It agrees with that genus remarkably in the intermixture of strong longitudinal fibres and 

 coarse cellular substance ; and at all events may be safely considered as the remains of some ar- 

 borescent Moncolyledon. 



8. Is so imperfect that it is hardly safe to refer it to Calamites ; and yet the apparent obliquity 

 of the only articulation that the specimen exhibits, is so much that of Calamites Voltzii of Ad. 

 Brongniart, as to render it probable that it may belong even to that species. 



9. Has on one side the evident impression of a Lepidodendron; on the other side it is striated 

 like Calamites artnaceus 1 perhaps it was the latter moulded on one side upon the stem of the 

 former. 



10. Was possibly a portion of No. 7, with the cortical integument less decayed ; on the lower 

 left hand side, quite at the edge, is a small part of the surface, which will nearly match a part of 

 No. 7. 



If these conjectures are correct, the whole of the specimens are referable to genera of the coal 

 measures ; but whether they are specifically the same, I cannot say." 



Such are the remarks of Professor Lindley on the fossil plants of Sloly 

 quarries ; and we contend that they oppose no real difficulties to our previous 

 conclusions respecting tlje age of the culm beds. Should true coal plants be 

 discovered in the lower group (North Devon, section No. 1), they would not, 

 we think, upset conclusions founded on so much direct evidence. They would, 

 however, prove one of two things — either that such plants had an unusually 

 wide geological range; or that the group below the culm measures was of a 

 more recent date than we first imagined; and formed (as has indeed been 



• Supra, p. 648. 

 VOL. V. SECOND SERIES. 4 T 



