64 



THE GEOLOGICAL HISTORY OF PLANTS. 



Fig. 19. — Psilophyton princeps, restored 

 (Lower Erian, Gaspe). a, Fruit, natural 

 size. Stern, natural size, c, Scalari- 

 form tissue of the axis, highly magni- 

 fied. In the restoration, one side is repre- 

 sented in vernation and the other in fruit. 



Another genus, 

 •which I have named 

 Psilophyton * (Figs. 

 19, 21), may be re- 

 garded as a connect- 

 ing link between the 

 Ehizocarps and the 

 Lycopods. It is so 

 named from its resem- 

 blance, in some re- 

 spects, to the curi- 

 ous parasitic Lycopods 

 placed in the modern 

 genus Psilotum. Sev- 

 eral species have been 

 described, and they are 

 eminently characteris- 

 tic of the Lower Eri- 

 an, in which they 

 were first discovered 

 in Gaspe. The typ- 

 ical species, Psilophy- 

 ton princeps, which 

 fills many beds of shale 

 and sandstone in Gas- 

 pe Bay and the head 

 of the neighbouring 

 Bay des Chaleurs with 

 its slender stems and 

 creeping, cord-like rhi- 

 zomes, may be thus de- 

 scribed : 



Stems branching 



* " Journal of the Geological Society," vols, xv., xviii., and xix., "Re- 

 port on Devonian Plants of Canada," 1871. 



