Preliminary Report on the Purbech Characese. 253 



The amount of new material thus obtained for the study of the fossil 

 Characece is so great that it will take us a considerable time to complete the 

 examination and photography. But already we have discovered that, instead 

 of one or two species, there are certainly seven or eight, belonging apparently 

 to four genera. We have that number of markedly distinct types of fruits, 

 and we have about the same number of different types of vegetative Organs. 

 This wealth of material is one of the great difficulties in our way. Nearly 

 every good block contains at least three of the types, and these fragile plants 

 have been so broken up and mixed as to be difficult to disentangle. Until 

 we can better correlate the different parts of each plant, and fix more 

 definitely which type of fruit belongs to each, we shall not be satisfied, but 

 meanwhile we will characterise the most abundant species, which is the type 

 of a new and remarkable genus. For this plant we have now obtained the 

 connection of the different parts, and have many specimens with the fruits 

 attached. 



The other species are much more rare, though we are gradually obtaining 

 a knowledge of their anatomy. It will be necessary, however, in the coming 

 year to gather more material and to have many more blocks sliced and 

 etched, in the hope that they may give us the connecting links. We think, 

 principally from a study of the association of the forms in each block, that 

 we can with great probability correlate four other types of fruits with the 

 vegetative parts to which they belong, but this correlation would have much 

 greater weight if we could exhibit and photograph the actual attachment of 

 the fruit to the branch, and of the branch to the stem, as can be done perfectly 

 in the type species of our new genus. 



Clavator, Eeid et Groves {gen. nov.). 



Caulis simplex, corticatus ; axis e cellulis alternatim elongatis et abbreviatis 

 compositus ; cortex circa illas tubulosus, circa has fusiformiter tumidus, hoc 

 modo caulem in internodia et nodos quasi dividens ; capite tumido turbinate 

 terminatus. Internodia e tubo centrali pariete crassa instructa, et cortice 

 semper 12 tubulorum parvorum cylindricorum contiguorum inter se sequaliuin 

 composita, omnia spatiis subasqualibus interjectis fasciculos symmetricos 

 (rosellas) processuum emittentia. Bosellancm processus plus minusve producti, 

 clavati, apice rotundati, quoquoversus divergentes, exteriores ad tubos corti- 

 cales adnati, processus quisque poro basali cum parte interiore tubi corticalis 

 conjunctus, poris processuum centralium solitariorum vel plurium plerumque 

 majoribus quam processuum exteriorum. Nodorum capitumque structura 

 admodum permutata, corticis tubi alternantes sex medium versus cito 



Y 2 



