700 



PROFESSOR A. C. SEWARD ON 



the carbonaceous films between this fossil and one figured by Heer from the Kome 

 beds of Greenland as Eolirion primigenius* a species founded by Schenk t on much 

 more satisfactory material from the Wernsdorf beds in the northern Carpathians and 

 described as a Monocotyledon. Eolirion was afterwards recognised by Schenk as a 

 Phoenicopsis.} The Culgower plant has nothing in common with Schenk's specimen, 

 and it differs from the Greenland fossil in the absence of veins and in its much more 

 ragged and filmy form : its position must be left undecided. 



B. Photo. 2, PL VI. 



This imperfectly preserved impression, reproduced rather less than natural size, 

 affords no indication of veins, nor does it present the appearance of a woody axis. 

 While recognising the possibility of its algal nature, it is too obscure to be referred to 

 the genus Algites. A similar specimen in the Peach collection in the British Museum 

 (No. 4313) has a more woody appearance and may be part of a forked fern rachis. 



Text-Fig. 14. 



A. Planta incertse sedis (f nat. size). (Gunn collection. ) 



B-F. Sponge spicules, from drawings made by Dr Hinde. For explanation, see text. ( x circ. 30). (Gunn collection.) 



C. Plate IX. figs. 33, 38 ; text-fig. 14, A-F. 



Some obscure impressions on a large slab of rock, though I am unable to express 

 any satisfactory opinion as to their true nature, may be briefly described. Fig. 38, 

 PL IX., shows one of these problematical fossils : the specimen consists of an axis 1 cm. 

 wide, with three branches, each of which terminates in an ill-defined mop-like head. 

 The main axis shows faint traces of irregularly longitudinal lines, but there is no 

 definite venation ; at the proximal end of the axis is an oval depression oblique to the 

 rock, which may be the scar of some other organ. On examining the mop-like head on 

 the right one is able, with a lens, to make out imperfectly preserved branched threads like 

 those somewhat diagrammatically shown in text-fig. 14, A. The specimen represented 

 in photo. 33 consists of an approximately circular but ill-defined mass of branching 



* Heer (75), pi. xxiv. figs. 1-3. 



t Schenk (71), pi. vii. fig. 4. 



% Schenk (90), p. 269. 



