ORGANIC REMAINS OF THE NEW RED SANDSTONE. 



43 



it is often difficult to determine, whether the New Red Sandstone is there in situ, or 

 whether the surface is merely covered by its disintegrated materials. (See Section, 

 PL 37. fig. 3.) 



Animal organic remains have not yet been recognised in this division of the New 

 Red System in Great Britain, but in a rock of the same age at Rhone Hill near Dun- 

 gannon in Ireland, a profusion of small fishes (Palceoniscus catopterus 1 of Agassiz) 

 were recently discovered. 



Although I have little doubt that future researches will bring to light fossil vegetables 

 from the central masses of our New Red System, I am as yet acquainted with one plant 

 only, found in strata of this age at Liverpool, a specimen of which is in the Museum of 

 the Literary and Scientific Institution of that town, and was, at my request, recently 

 submitted to the inspection of Professor Lindley, who has figured it in the Fossil Flora, 

 vol. iii. t. 201. naming it Dictyophy Hum crassinervium. The accompanying wood-cut is 

 taken from the drawing prepared under Mr. Lindley 's direction, and he thus describes 

 the fragment. 



8. 



SE The specimen is that of a leaf of considerable size, of which only a portion of the 

 upper end remains, the end itself and all the margin being broken off. It bears a striking 

 resemblance to the leaf of some of the thick-ribbed cabbages, consisting of several 

 elevated ribs, full three quarters of an inch wide, which spring at an acute angle from 

 a midrib of about the same thickness, and divide towards the point into two or three 



1 Geol. Proc, 1834-5, vol. ii. p. 206. The fish quarries of Rhone Hill were visited by Professor Sedgwick 

 and myself, accompanied by Mr. Griffith, Lord Cole, and Colonel Montgomery. 



