312 E. H. BARBOUR — NATURE AND PHYLOGENY OP DAEMONELIX. 



are invisible in the figures of Daemonelix because of their great reduc- 

 tion, yet they are alwaj r s present, and are faithfully portrayed in figure 

 34 and need no further comment. 



Great Tubes of Daemonelix. 



Matted tubules constitute the visible part of the Daemonelix series, 

 and, because of their perfect fossilization, lend themselves readily to 

 study. Not so the great interior tubes, in which the cells were undoubt- 

 edly broken down by decomposition before the replacement by inorganic 

 matter was possible. Accordingly, these tubes have not hitherto yielded 

 to determination under the glass. However, at Squaw canyon, on the 

 last expedition, some specimens were found whose perfection of preser- 

 vation is beyond praise. On removing the surface mat of tubules the 

 interior of one great rhizome was found to be crowded with hollow, 

 twisting, branching tubes, whose ramifications led apparently to the 

 lesser tubes and thence possibly to the tubules themselves. This at first 

 sight seems to stand in evidence against the burrow theory. The pure 

 white silicious tubes, with diameters varying from 2 to 20 millimeters, 

 with walls scarcely rnore than one millimeter thick, present a superficial 

 structure with nodular joints and corrugations like the bark of a higher 

 plant (see plate 37, figures 35, 36). 



Structurally, the tissues revealed can only be equaled by that of a 

 living plant. Sections across the thin wall show parallel rows of rect- 

 angular cells, suggestive of the cork layer of higher plants. Tangential 

 sections show polygonal cells differing in no respect from similar prepa- 

 rations of flowering plants. Apparently all has rotted away but the 

 cork layer. The theory of the fresh-water seaweed, according to this, 

 may yet be sacrificed to that of a higher plant. 



Possibly these tubes represent higher plants, which drifted into the 

 lake and upon which grew the Daemonelix fibers encircling them, ex- 

 actly as is supposed to have been done in the case of the large skeletons 

 and bones found similarly inclosed in Daemonelix. 



Minute Structure of the Daemonelix Series. 



In studying the microscopic structure of the Daemonelix group, 120 

 slides cut from every part, of various forms, demonstrate the fact, already 

 stated under each heading, that there is apparent similarity and identity 

 of tissue in all ; that the structure, though poorly preserved in some 

 slides, is wanting in none, and that it is cellular but not vascular. This 

 has led the author to believe, and to suggest that these are seaweeds or 



