16 BETOPHTTA. 



examine a specimen originally described and figured by Buckman ' 

 under tbe name Najadita, from the plant bed at the base of the 

 Lias, near Bristol; his inspection of this supposed monocotyledon 

 led him to the conclusion that Buckman's plant was probably 

 closely allied to the common fresh-water moss Fontinalis. In this 

 opinion he was supported by Messrs. Carruthers and Murray, of 

 the British Museum, to whom the specimen was shown. 



In a footnote to Gardner's paper the important fact is added 

 that a capsule had been sent to him by Mr. Brodie from the same 

 locality. 



The argument advanced by Heer ■" in the "Urwelt der Schweiz " 

 for the existence of Triassic mosses is well known. In describing 

 some Lias insects from the rocks of Schambelen, Heer notes the 

 absence of fossil fungi in these rocks, but goes on to say that their 

 presence may be inferred from the occurrence of certain genera of 

 beetles. The same kind of reasoning is made use of in the case of 

 mosses ; four species of Byrrhus, found in the Schambelen Lias, 

 are supposed to warrant the assumption that mosses were also in 

 existence, because at the present day the nearest living allies of 

 those Schambelen beetles derive their food from mosses. Such 

 reasoning can hardly be accepted in the accumulation of reliable 

 evidence for the geological history of particular classes of plants. 



A Cretaceous moss has been figured by Ettingshausen and Debey 

 from the Aachen and Maestricht rocks under the name Musettes 

 cretaceus^ ; the figure of the type specimen shows a very small 

 and imperfect fragment. The plant fragments figured by Eoemer,* 

 and described by him as Musoites imbricatus and M. falcifoUus, 

 from the North German Wealden beds, are most probably pieces 

 of coniferous branches, and certainly of no value as records of 

 Wealden mosses. The specimen figured by Dunker, from the 

 same district, as Musoites Sternhergianus, is in all probability a 

 fragment of a coniferous branch. From the Tertiary rocks several 

 authors have described species of Musoites, but in nearly all cases 

 the determinations are based solely on fragments of vegetative 



• Quart. Joum. Geol. Soc. vol. vi. p. 413. 

 » Urwelt, 1879, p. 99. 



' Denkschr. k. Ak. Wiss. mat. nat. CI. vol. xvii. p. 185, pi. i. i 



* Verstein. Ool. Geb. p. 10, pi. xvii. fig. 2. 

 s 'WealdeiiMduiig, p. 20, pi. vii. fig. 10. 



