MIMICBY. 293 



sentatives of an insect fauna that was predominant in the 

 Carboniferous epoch."* Brongniart and Scudder have proposed 

 a distinct family — Protophasmidce — for these fossil remains, 

 though Scudder' s " restoration " of T. fayoli is perhaps, and 

 necessarily, somewhat imaginary. Mr. Comstock maintains that 

 "we must turn to the Carboniferous as the earliest epoch from 

 which we have data to base our conclusions regarding the struc- 

 ture of the primitive insect wings" ;t whilst Huxley believed 

 that " the Carboniferous Insecta and Arachnida are neither less 

 specialized, nor more embryonic, than those that now live." + 



If, however, we suppose, as we may reasonably do, that these 

 Carboniferous Phasmidce must have been protected forms of 

 insect life at that period — for it is by their peculiar structure 

 that the fossil remains are recognized — the imitative resemblance 

 would also have a different meaning and a diverse reference to 

 what now obtains. Eespecting fossil Cockroaches, Mr. Scudder 

 states : — " The first Cockroach wing ever described was first 

 described as a fern leaf, and in all, or nearly all, the localities 

 where their remains have been found they are associated with 

 fern leaves in immense abundance. While searching for their 

 remains in the Permian deposits at Carsville, I was much struck 

 by this resemblance, and was repeatedly obliged to use the glass 

 to determine whether it was the wing of a Cockroach or the 

 frond of a fern I had uncovered, and the instances are not rare 

 where they agree completely in size. The general distribution of 

 the nervures is to cursory view the same in each, and the form is 

 often nearly identical." § The flora of the Carboniferous era was 

 very different to that of the present epoch. The mighty forests 

 of gigantic horse-tails, club-mosses, and tree-ferns replaced or 

 anticipated the jungles and woods of to-day; and, as Haeckel truly 

 observes : — " It is difficult for us to form any idea of the very 

 peculiar nature of those gloomy palaeolithic fern-forests, in which 

 the whole of the gay abundance of flowers of our present flora 

 was entirely wanting, and which were not enlivened by any bird 



* In ' Zool. Kesults of Arthur Willey ExpedV pt. i. p. 78. 

 f 'Evolution and Taxonomy.' — 'The Wilder Quarter- Century Book, 

 p. 56. 



+ ' Collected Essays,' vol. viii. p. 297. 



§ 'Bull. U.S. Geol. Surv.' No. 124, pp. 30-1 (1895). 



