— 407 — 
ALGAE 
HYDRODICTYACEAE ? 
Reinschia (!) 
Bertrand and Renault, Bull. Soc. hist. nat. Autun, vol. V, 
1892, pag. 172. 
Reinschia australis Bert. & Ren., brasiliensis n. var. 
Pl. XI, Figs. 11 42. 
1892. Reinschia australis Bertrand & Renault, Bull. Soc, 
hist. nat., Autun, vol. V, p. 172: Bertrand & Renault, Bull, 
Soc. géol. Belg., vol. VII, 1893, mem. p. 64, pl. V, fig. 23-41 ; 
Bertrand & Renault, Bull. Soc. hist. nat. Autun, vol. VI, 1893, 
p. 321, pl. IV-VII ; Bertrand, Bull. Soc. hist. nat. Autun, vol. IX, 
1896, p. 193; Renault, Fl. foss. bassin houill. et perm. d’Autun 
et d’Epinac, pt. 2, 1896, p. 540; Bertrand, Ann. Soc. géol. 
Nord., vol. XXIX, 1900, p. 33 ; Renault, Sur quelques microorg. 
comb. foss., 1900, p. 157, pl. XX. 
Globular floating algae, with hollow, vertically more or less 
flattened thalli, averaging about 200 microns in horizontal diameter 
sometimes exceeding 500 microns more or less round, sublobate, 
crenulate or cerebriform in horizontal section ; consisting of a single 
layer of thick-walled cells backed by a gelatinous (gelosic) layer ; cells 
polyhedral, the vertical ones measuring 20-30 microns in height 
and 10-15 microns tn diameter, primastic when young, and pyriform, 
the smaller end outward, when mature, the lateral walls very thick, 
the distal walls much thinner. 
(1) As these pages were being printed and to late to make the necessary alterations 
in the text I have received authentic information from Brazil to the effect that for a 
number of years past, fragments of boghead coal, similar to the one here discussed, 
have been found at various points along a very considerable section of the Brazilian 
coast and under circumstances that have led the Brazilian geologists who have exami- 
ned them to attribute them to passing vessel. A large block found near Santos figured 
in the Chicago Exposition of 1893, and accompanying the note sent was a fragment 
found on the coast of Santa Catharina, The latter specimen is so like, in its physical 
characters, the ones here described as to Jeave practically no room for doubt regarding 
the identity of the material as to source. On the other hand the identity above noted 
of its microscopic composition with that of the kerozene shale of New South Wales 
makes it almost absolulely certain that the above mentioned interpretation of the 
Brazilian Geologists is the correct one. As is well known the Autralian material has 
been extensively eitpped to Europe and probably for the most part the vessels conve- 
ying'it have passed along the Brazilian coast where one or more of them may have 
suffered shipwreck. ; 
In view of the wide distribution of this material on the coast of Brazil and of the 
interest that it has from time to time awakened it is perhaps not to be regretted that, 
under a misapprehesion, it as been included in the study of Brazilian vegetable 
remains, 
