setae slender and terete at the apex. Neither this variety nor the typical D. urceolatum 

 has yet been found at Brunssum. Extreme specimens of this variety seem to form a 

 transition to broad flat specimens of D. vespiforme var. triangulate. 



We have in these fossil fruits of Dulichium a series of gradations connecting the 

 handsome rounded biconcave D. urceolatum (fig. 17), with the narrow form of D. vest 

 piforme (fig. 8); other varieties perhaps connect D. vespiforme with certain extreme 

 forms of D. spathaceum, and these form a transition into the narrow strap*shaped nut 

 of fig. 3 and the living plant. The living plant however has fruits which vary but little, 

 notwithstanding its considerable range in latitude. 



We do not feel certain as to the proper interpretation of these variations. Dulichium 

 in Pliocene times may have been a large genus, such as Carex is now, and each of our 

 varieties perhaps ought to be called a species. Or, on the other hand, we may be dealing 

 with a few species, each more variable than the living form. The latter interpretation 

 seems at present to be the safest, and we therefore group all the forms under three species. 



DULICHIUM? Sp. nov. 

 PI. Ill, fig. 21. 



Nut ovate triquetrous, narrowing gradually into the stalk and more abruptly 

 into the beak; stalk about V 4 length of nut; beak striate, conical below and marked by 

 bases of small setae (?), stout, about V 2 length of nut without stalk, triquetrous 

 spatulate at end (from compression?); surface of nut black, angles brown, faces finely 

 granulate in places, marked by shallow hexagonal elongate pits, faintly marked by 

 three straight brown lines, which suggest impressions of 8 or 9 setae now destroyed. 



Length (including stalk and beak) 3.5 mm., nut alone 2.1 mm., breadth 1.1 mm. 



Reuver. 



This sharply triquetrous nut seems to represent a welbmarked undescribed spe* 

 cies belonging to some genus allied to Dulichium ; but in the absence of setae we do 

 not like to name it. The conical base and the three brown lines seen on the faces of one 

 specimen suggest that the fruit had 8 or 9 slender deciduous setae attached in 3 rows, 

 but not attached to a thickened collar as in Dulichium. The truncate end of the beak 

 (spatulate at tip in one specimen) suggests a passage there into a deciduous herbace* 

 ous style. 



As all known species of Dulichium have styles slender and uniform in substance, 

 and setae attached to a thickened collar and hard and stiff to the tip, we can scarcely 

 refer our fossils to this genus; they must wait the discovery of more perfect specimens. 



. CAREX. 



Though the genus Carex is represented in the Reuverian deposits by about a 

 dozen species, this number of forms is fewer than we should expect, when we consider 



68 



