224 PROCEEDINGS OF THE GEOLOGICAL SOCIETY.  [Feb. 2, 
portion, and scarcely half the diameter of the frond before division : 
average diameter of fronds below a division 5 lines, but varying 
from 7 to 2. 
The above description, when taken in connexion with the geolo- 
gical position, will probably render this species easy of recognition. 
CHONDRITES ACUTANGULUS (M‘Coy), n.s. 
Spec. Char.—Frond irregularly undulato-rugose, cylindrical, rigid, 
several times dichotomous at a very acute angle (about 20°) ; 
diameter throughout, both before and after branching, 24 lines. 
In general habit and appearance this is more simple, rigid and 
rugose than the ordinary species of Chondrites, and, as well as the 
preceding species, is not unlike Miinsteria, but the surface is without 
lineation. The present species differs strongly from the Fucoides 
(Chondrites) rigida and F. (Ch.) flecuosa of the American Taconic 
slates, and the F’. (Chondrites) antiquus of the old Norwegian schists, 
by the length, rigidity and straightness of its branches, and the 
acuteness of the angle at which it dichotomises. Specimens 5 inches 
long show only two branchings, and are nearly uniform in diameter 
throughout. 
PaLzocHorpA (M‘Coy), new genus (raaatds, antiquus, and yxopdn, 
chorda). 
Gen. Char.—Frond very long, cylindrical, cord-like, very slowly 
tapering at each end ; surface smooth (? rarely dichotomous). 
That the many long, worm-like fossils to which I give this name 
really belong to the vegetable kingdom, I think cannot be reasonably 
doubted if we compare them with such sea-weeds as the common 
Chorda filum of our coasts. The naturalist who described the 
Nemertites for Sir Roderick Murchison’s work, does not seem to 
have thought of the cord-like sea-weeds just mentioned, or it is pos- 
sible he might have referred that genus also to the vegetable kingdom, 
a view which seems to be supported by a specimen identical with 
Nemertites in the Cambridge Museum, one end of which seems rooted 
to a small pebble in the slate. There is no reason for considering 
either the present fossils, or the closely-allied Gordia marina figured 
by Mr. Emmons from the Taconic rocks of North America, as 
belonging to the animal kingdom. In neither of them is there any 
trace of feet, cirri, or any other organs; nor even of annulations 
(although this latter character of worms might even be in some 
measure represented in a deceptive manner by the diaphragms of 
the recent plant to which I have alluded). 
The specimens were no doubt at one time cylindrical, but are now 
more or less compressed. There seem to be two species, distinguished 
by their difference of diameter and rigidity, as shown in the com- 
plexity of their folds. 
