VIIl] MUSCITES. 241 



small and imperfect fragments of slender stems bearing rather 

 long oval leaves which might well have belonged to a moss. 

 The material is however too fragmentary to allow of accurate 

 diagnosis or determination. 



2. Muscites ferrugineus (Ludg.). This species possesses a 

 slender stem bearing crowded ovate-acuminate leaves. The 

 capsules are cup-shaped, borne on a short stalk, with a circular 

 opening without marginal teeth. This fossil was first figured 

 and described by Ludwig^ from a brown ironstone of Miocene 

 age at Dernbach in Nassau. The author of the species placed 

 it in the recent genus Gymnostomum, and Schimper'-' afterwards 

 changed the generic name to Sphagnum, at the same time 

 altering the specific name to Ludwigi. The evidence is hardly 

 strong enough to justify a generic designation which implies 

 identity with a particular recent genus, and it is a much safer 

 plan to adopt the non-committal term Muscites, at the same 

 time retaining Ludwig's original specific name. Without having 

 examined the type-specimen it is impossible to express a definite 

 opinion as to the accuracy of the description given by Ludwig; 

 if the capsule is correctly identified it is the oldest example 

 hitherto recorded of a fossil moss-sporogonium. 



1 Ludwig (59) p. 165, PI. lxiii. fig. 9. 



2 Schimper and Sohenk (90) p. 75. 



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