2 ANNALS OF THE QUEENSLAND MUSEUM. 
softer, more flaky under the chisel, and, by hydration of the iron 
sait ; impure yellow in colour. 
Regretting that I am unable to give a more satisfactory 
account of the environment of the fossils at burial, I proceed to 
submit them to notice individually. The first, in the form of a 
Cycad, will, perhaps, appeal more especially to the interest of the 
palaeobotanist. 
CYCADAIEiE. 
Across the surface of one of the slabs lies the inorganic cast 
of a section of an apparently cycadaceous stem, 7 inches (177mm.) in 
length, and in breadth varying from 3 inches (76 mm.) at the base to 
1| inch (38 mm.) at the apex. The stem is flattened, so greatly, indeed, 
that its basal section has the form of an elongated triangle, with its 
very obtuse angle replaced by a deep excavation, the termination of 
a tubular cavity in the heart of the stem. The lower half of the 
medullary cavity is empty, or nearly so ; its upper moiety is still 
occupied by its converted medullary tissue distinguished by its 
colour from the adjacent ligneous and cortical layers, which, in 
their present denuded condition, of course, present no surface 
whereon foliation cicatrices could be preserved. Accompanying the 
stem there is not a trace of organic matter visible, unless it be, 
as be it may, that a black substance scattered over the slab, and 
distantly simulating dendritic manganese, represents the carbon- 
aceous remains of decayed foliage. It is possible that this seeming 
fossil stands in peril of being condemned out of the category of 
extinct plants, on the ground that it is but a pipe in the rock filled 
up with sediment. I believe that cases of the kind have occurred. 
But what if it could be shown in the present one that Cyeads were 
either growing or deposited on the same spot at the same time ? 
Would not the recognition of the organic origin of this " stem " be 
then justifiable ? As this evidence of the correctness of the view 
taken of it here is merely concealed by 1^ inch of sediment, 
we have but to turn the slab over to find it in the form of a 
plant of well-known but, under the circumstances, an unexpected 
genus. 
PTEROPHYLLUM MUCRONATUM, n.s. 
PI. ii, figs. 1 and 2. 
The survival of the long-lived and prolific genus Pterophyllum 
to Cretaceous times is attested by the generic characters of part of 
