28 PSILOTALES [CH. 



8 mm. broad, bears a close resemblance to a fern rhizome 

 covered with ramental scales such as that of a species of 

 Davallia. Other Belgian specimens described by Gilkinet' as 

 Lepidodendron burnotense, like Crepin's species, are no doubt 

 generically identical with some of the Scotch and Canadian 

 fossils placed in the genus Psilophyton, though Penhallow^' 

 considers that the species Lycopodites Milleri is more correctly 

 referred to Lycopodites than to Psilophyton. 



A more recent paper on the Geology of the Perry basin in 

 South-eastern Maine by Smith and White ^ contains a critical 

 summary of the literature on Psilophyton and drawings of 

 specimens. The latter afford good examples of Pre-Carboniferous 

 plant fragments, such as are often met with in various parts 

 of the world, which conform in habit to the New Brunswick 

 specimens made by Dawson the type of his genus. 



An examination of material in the Montreal Museum and of 

 Hugh Miller's specimens in the Edinburgh collection leads me 

 to share the opinion of Count Solms-Laubach that the name 

 Psilophyton has been applied to plants which should not be 

 included under one generic title. As Kidston* pointed out, 

 the Canadian species Psilophyton robustius is not generically 

 distinct from British and Belgian specimens referred to Lepido- 

 dendron; it may possibly be identical with the Bohemian plants 

 on which Stur founded his genus Hostinella^. The Devonian 

 plants described by Stur have since been examined by Jahn" 

 who regards them as vascular plants, and not as algae to which 

 Stur referred them ; he mentions two species of Psilophyton 

 but gives no figures. 



The "spore-cases" of Dawson may be found to be the 

 micro-sporangia or perhaps the small seeds of some pteri- 

 dosperm ; the forked axes with a smooth surface and others 

 figured by Miller and by Dawson, with the surface covered with 

 scales suggesting the ramenta of a fern, may be the rachises or 

 rhizomes of filicinean plants. Other specimens may be Lepido- 

 dendron twigs, as for example the petrified fi:agments figured by 



1 Gilkinet (75) figs. 2—5. 2 Penhallow (92) p. 8. 



' Smith and White (05) p. 58, Pis. v. vi. ^ Kidston (86=) p. 232. 



» Stur (81) Pis. HI. IV. 8 jahn (03) p. 77. 



