60 



FOSSIL PLANTS. 



restoring the plant, according to liis idea of its forna and character, from the parts then 

 in his possession. Fig. 2 (natural size) represents the restored Stem, Branch, Leaves, 

 and Cone, as it appeared to Mr. Bowman. This is copied from his original drawing. 



Fig. 3 (magnified six times) represents, according to Mr. Bowman's view, and from 

 his original drawing, two of the lower Scales, each supporting five Macrospores, but not 

 giving evidence of the walls of any Sporangium that enclosed them. 



In fig. 1 a, where the two whorls of Leaves are seen, they appear to be distinct and 

 separate, springing from the rounded knobs at the joints, just as they appear on the stem 

 and branch, figs. 1 6 and 1 c. Now, in Mr. Bowman's restored drawing (fig. 2), he 

 makes the leaves united at their base, and springing from a kind of sheath that embraces 

 the stem to which they were attached. No doubt Mr. Bowman, who was a skilled 

 botanist, and had better information than we possess, must have been better qualified to 

 speak with certainty on this point than, from the two fragments in our possession, we 

 are noAv. 



Whatever may be the true characters of the leaves of this plant, it undoubtedly 

 furnishes us with evidence of the former existence of a stem, with verticillate leaves, 

 possessing a Cone with Macrospores in its lower part ; and thus it induces us to believe 

 that Specimens No. 23 and No. 27, hereinbefore described, may be more nearly allied to 

 this plant than to the genus Lejndostrohus with which they have been, in doubt, pro- 

 visionally classed. 



At first, from the characters of the stem and leaves, it occurred to me to place this 

 Cone in the genus Calamostacliys of Schimper j but the Macrospores in it are so different 

 to the spores of Calamostacliys that it is probably better to establish a new genus. It is, 

 therefore, here called Boiomanites, after its discoverer, Mr. Bowman, and Cambrensis from 

 the country where it was found. 



V. Concluding Remarks. 



This Monograph, no doubt the reader will have perceived, was intended to be of a 

 descriptive character rather than an attempt to trace the analogy of those plants, the remains 

 of which have formed our valuable beds of coal, with living vegetables. My endeavours 

 have been to collect materials and give them to the public for botanists to work upon. 

 The subject is surrounded with difficulties ; and, although it has been my good fortune 

 to meet with many specimens in a fair state of preservation, the specimen, as a rule, when 

 the internal structure is well preserved, is in a fragmentary condition, and when several 

 parts of a plant are found connected together we are not favoured with structure, as is the 

 case of the beautiful fossil plant last described. 



