484 



JEE. HICKS ON THE REMAINS OF PLANTS EROM THE 



lafcions in fossil plants. The minute bodies, aggregated together, 

 which you have also shown me are, I believe, spores ; and as they 

 are united in threes, they agree with the forms of the microspores 

 of Lycopodiaceae, both recent and fossil, and testify to the existence 

 of a dry-land flora. Perhaps some of the anthracite fragments may 

 belong to the stems of the plants of which these are the reproductive 

 organs. The ribbon-like carbonaceous impressions, with a slender 

 axis, must have been also dry-land plants ; they remind me of the 

 plants discovered and described by Principal Dawson, C.M.G., as 

 Psilojphyton. 



" "W". Carruthers." , 



The specimens found, hitherto, of Nematophycus are all in a frag- 

 mentary condition, the largest pieces being generally under 2 inches 

 in length, and a little over half an inch in thickness. The natural 

 outline, however, is frequently preserved; and if the majority of the 

 fragments are any guide to the natural size of the mature plant, it 

 is evident it must have been small as compared with the Devo- 

 nian one of Sir W. Logan, which attained to over a foot in diameter. 

 That the plant must have been plentiful at this early period is clear 

 from the very great abundance of the fragments in some of the beds ; 

 sometimes so closely compressed together are they, that they form 

 an actual carbonaceous seam from one to two inches in thickness. 



The microscopical characters of this plant, which are peculiarly 

 interesting, will be fully referred to in the Appendix by Mr. 

 Etheridge *. 



The discovery of Pachytheca and other spore-like bodies in con- 

 siderable abundance in association with NematopJiycus is curious, but, 

 as remarked by Mr. Carruthers, is no direct evidence of their relation- 

 ship. We know, moreover, from geological evidence, that the shore- 

 line at the time could not have been very far distant, and therefore 

 that it is quite possible there may be here a mixture of marine and 

 dry-land plants. The broken condition of the specimens also tends 

 to show that none of them lived in the actual positions in which they 

 are now found, but that they were brought here by some accidental 

 cause, possibly along with a great amount of sediment, and as the 

 result of river-floods, or of depression followed by rapid marine 

 denudation. 



The almost abrupt appearance at this horizon of massive beds 

 of grits upon fine muddy deposits of considerable thickness, such 

 as the slates immediately below, evidently tends to show that a 

 physical change was then taking place in some neighbouring area ; 

 but besides this there is nothing to indicate a physical break at this 

 point. 



* Dr. Dawson, in his reply to Mr. Carruthers, 'Monthly Microscopical 

 Journal,' 1873, still insists on his former diagnoses; and in a letter addressed 

 to me, dated June 16th, 1881, in reference to the published abstract of this paper, 

 says : — " I have perfect confidence in my genera Frototaxites, Nematoxylon, and 

 Celluloxylon, as representing primitive types of land plants ; and I maintain my 

 j udgment as to these genera, and I believe it will be vindicated by future dis- 

 coveries." 



