= 
FOSSILS OF NEW SOUTH WALES. 719 
3. The linear leaflets proceeding from the edge of the sheath, and corresponding each 
to one of its delicate ridges or interstriations, 
4, The tubular character of the plant (as in Equisetum). 
In No. I. there is an abrupt bend at a, one of the articulations, showing where the 
sheaths are attached, and exhibiting by its torn character, the relation of the leaflets to the 
sheath. In No. V., and less perfectly in I. and III., we have the upper extremity of the 
plant, exhibiting the successively decreasing joints, and the shorter and less divergent 
whorls of leaflets. The tubular character of the plant is evident from the thinness of the 
fossil and the manner in which it is in some cases broken by pressure into fibres, cor- 
responding to the strize of the surface. The compressed sheaths exceed considerably in 
diameter the part of the plant they encircle, as if not applied when living quite close 
to the plant; below, they cover about half the length of a joint of the stem. Some of the 
leaflets are more than two inches long; their breadth is less than half a line. The lower 
leaflets are much spread, or even somewhat drooping, while the upper are nearly erect. 
These plants are considered by Brongniart as resembling somewhat the Eguwzsetacea, 
but as more closely related to the Asterophyllites. M’Coy has suggested that they belong 
near the Casuarinz, on account of the manner in which another species, observed by him, 
branches—that is, directly above the nodes, instead of below them, like the Equiseta. 
That so thin tubular plants can be very closely allied to the woody Casuarine, seems to 
us somewhat doubtful. 
Phyllotheca australis, Ad. Brongn., Prodrome. 
——, Lindley and Hutton, Fossil Flora. 
, Unger, Chloris Protogzea. 
——, J. Moms, in Strzelecki’s New South Wales, p. 250. 
——, M°Coy, Ann. and Mag. Nat. Hist., vol. xx. pp. 152, 156. 
Notr.—Fig. 2, plate 14, represents two naked stems, pertaining apparently to the 
genus Phyllotheca. One is an inch broad, 63 inches long; and the others are about 
half an inch broad, and 4 to 6 inches long. They all have a striated surface, as the 
figures show, and consist of joints 1g inches long. They were evidently thin tubular 
plants like the preceding, as the fossil has no greater thickness than a leaf of a Glossop- 
teris. Whether they are the P. australis of more advanced age with the sheaths fallen 
off, or different species, I have not the means of determining. M’Coy’s figures of his two 
new species, P. ramosa and P. Hooker, (loc. cit. p. 156, pl. 11,) appear to show that 
the plants belong in the same genus with the preceding. 
CLASTERIA (nov. gen.)—Ctasreria australis, Dana.—This name is here pro- 
posed for some singular plants or portions of plants, presenting the characters shown by 
figures 3, 4, on plate 14, of natural size, and the enlarged drawing, figure 5. We do not 
pretend to understand their nature, or explain by any hypothesis their structure. They are 
broad linear, ¢ of an inch to wide, with the sides parallel; and from the appearance of 
the fossil, it is apparent that they must have been hollow, as remains of both an upper 
and under integument can be distinguished. They consist of two unsymmetrical longi- 
tudinal halves. In figure 3, I, each half has a transverse elevation at distant intervals, 
and between the elevations, a transverse depression, as shown more clearly in figure 5. 
The elevations and depressions are unlike in their length of interval in the two halves, as 
represented. In II and III, the same structure is seen. In figure 4, IV, the structure is 
different, the stem appears to be broken across either one or both halves, at intervals of half 
