124 LOWER DEVONIAN PLANT REMAINS 
designation for them is Hedeia cf. corymbosa. The corroborative 
evidence regarding the radial construction of such branch-systems 
provided by one of the specimens (Nat. Mus. Vict., Nos. 14661, 
14662) is, however, of some interest. In this instance the rock 
split in such a way that a practically complete cross-section of the 
distal region of a partially carbonized branch-system was exposed. 
This portion of the specimen is illustrated at a magnification of 
three diameters in Plate IV, Fig. 11. In it can be counted some 
fourteen tube-like cavities, more or less completely filled with 
cores of matrix, the appearance and arrangement of which suggest 
a derivation from a radially arranged series of terminal branches. 
A portion of the proximal region of the same branch-system is 
illustrated in Plate IV, Fig. 10, where the main stem shows the 
origin of two short branches which in turn appear to undergo 
further subdivision at identical levels. 
A second specimen from the same locality is shown enlarged 
two diameters in Plate V, Fig. 15, It is an impression of a rather 
large branch system in which three short secondary branches arise 
from the main axis (not preserved) at one level. Each of these 
branches shows three successive dichotomies at one level. The 
final ramifications can be traced for some distance in the right- 
hand branch without sign of sporangial enlargements. 
A single specimen collected by Mr. Gill at a third Yeringian 
locality—Syme’s Homestead, Killara—is shown in Plate V, Fig. 
17 
On the whole, the branch-systems from the Lilydale outcrops 
are smaller and more compact and ‘‘bud’’-like than those from 
Mount Pleasant. They indicate that this type must have been 
relatively abundant in Lower Devonian times and raise the ques- 
tion as to whether this peculiar type of branching may have been 
associated with vegetative as well as fertile axes. 
5. Smooth branched axes. Incertae Sedis 
Plate V, Figs. 18-20. 
As is frequently the case in early Palaeozoic rocks, the most 
numerous plant-fossils at the Hull Road outcrop are pieces of 
smooth, rigid stems. These are from 1 to 8 mm. in width and some 
are branched by what appears to have been equal or slightly 
unequal dichotomy. 
It is possible that specimens similar to those in Plate V, Figs. 
18, 19 and 20, are portions of plants which have been identified 
from these beds by their fructifications, but as disconnected frag- 
ments can only be recorded as Incertae Sedis. 
