BOWMANITES. 



59 



with the Lower Carboniferous series of Arran, in the ' Geol. Mag.,' vol. ii, 1865, p. 474 ; 

 vol. iv, 1867, p. 551 ; ' Trans. Geol. Soc.,' Glasgow, vol. ii, part 3, 1866, p. 97, &c.). 



§ 10. Specimen No. 30 ; Bowmanites Cambrensis, gen. et sp. nov. Plate XII, figs. \,\ a, 



\b,l c, 2, 3. 



PI. XII, fig. 1 (natural size), and fig. 1 a (magnified two diameters), represent a branch 

 and part of the lower portion of the Cone of a singular plant, found many years since by 

 the late Mr. John Eddowes Bowman, F.G.S., in a nodule of clay-ironstone at the Varteg 

 Iron-works, near Pontypool, Soutli Wales. Per these specimens, my thanks are due to 

 his son, the late Professor Eddowes Bowman, who liberally presented them to me. The 

 branch proceeded from the stem at the hole seen in the lower part of the specimen 

 (fig. 1), and consisted of a slight, ribbed and furrowed, cylindrical stem, parted at regular 

 intervals by joints and knots, giving rise to verticillate leaves ; it was terminated by a 

 long Cone, cylindrical in the middle, and tapering at its extremities. The whole of the 

 substance of the Stem and Cone was replaced by a white powder, so that only a 

 mould of the fossil has been left in the matrix of clay-ironstone, Avith the exception of 

 dark-coloured and granulated discs, about one twenty-second of an inch in diameter, 

 which have been left on the sides of the mould, in the exact position which the corre- 

 sponding spots occupied in the original plant. 



The leaves of the plant came out in whorls of sixteen, at each knot, and were of a 

 subulate form, and strongly ribbed in the middle. They resemble those of Jsferoj)/i7/llites. 



The form of the stem and branch remind us of the Bechera grandis of Lindley and 

 Button ; but the shape and characters of the Cone and its contents differ very consider- 

 ably from those of that plant. 



Fig. 1 a (magnified two diameters) represents a portion of the stem and of two whorls 

 of leaves, as they now appear in the specimen. 



Eig. 1 h (magnified two diameters) represents a cast, taken in gutta-percha, of a 

 portion of the stem, showing its ribbed and furrowed surfaces, and the joints and knots, 

 whence proceeded the leaves, apparently sixteen in each whorl. 



Eig. 1 c (magnified two diameters) represents a cast, in gutta-percha, of the branch 

 to which the Cone was attached ; its ribs, furrows, and knots, and the origin of the 

 leaves are very distinct. 



As previously stated, the two specimens of this plant belonged to the late Mr. J. E. 

 Bowman. More than thirty years since, when my late friend first showed them to me, 

 the whole consisted of six or seven pieces, comprising apparently the entire original 

 nodule.^ At that time he had made an enlarged drawing of the whole of the specimen, 



. 1 Mr. Wm. Bowman, F.R.S., has kindly allowed me to search his late father's cabinet, but the missino- 

 parts of the fossil have not yet been found. 



