SHOWING STRUCTURE, FROM THE RHYNIE CHERT BED, ABERDEENSHIRE. 881 
better for the present regarded as an open one. That, however, in a number of 
respects these remains resemble the isolated existing group of the Characeee has been 
made evident in the description and discussion above. In this connection it should 
be borne in mind that structures suggestively like the oogonia * of a Characeous 
plant have been recorded from Devonian rocks in America. 
We have indicated the uncertainty that must still exist as to the systematic 
position of the remains under consideration by placing them for the present in the 
comprehensive genus Algites. On the ground, however, of various features of the 
vegetative structure that suggest that we are probably dealing with a Characeous 
plant with uncorticated internodal cells, we provisionally suggest the generic name 
Palseonitella. We thus for the present name the plant Algites ( Palseonitella ) 
Cranii ; the name Palseonitella may be definitely adopted if the systematic position 
of the plant is confirmed by the discovery of reproductive organs, or abandoned 
should these show that the affinities of the plant are not with the Characeae. 
Algites ( Palseonitella ) Cranii, Kidston and Lang, n.sp. (PI. IX, figs. 98-104, 
and text-figs. 6-11). 
Septate filaments composed of cells with fairly thick walls and contracted dark 
contents. Tip of filament ending in a dome-shaped cell. Sometimes a short node 
of small cells occurs separating two of the large cells. Branching from cells of 
the node. Rhizoids (?) with elongated tubular cells separated by oblique septa, in 
relation to which there is an irregular node of small cells. Large vesicles associated 
with the remains. 
Occurs in the matrix of the peat in certain beds of the Rhyme deposit. The 
rhizoid-like structures may be within decayed tissues of plant-fragments. 
Locality. — Muir of Rhynie, Aberdeenshire. 
Horizon. — Old Red Sandstone. (Not younger than the Middle Division of the 
Old Red Sandstone of Scotland.) 
Incertse sedis, but associated with Algites Cranii as probably belonging to it. 
(PI. VIII, figs. 91-97, and text-figs. 1-5.) 
Small axis with internodal cells and whorls of appendages at the nodes. 
Rhizoid-like structures and spherical bulbils (?). 
(PI. IX, figs. 105-108.) 
Tubular filaments with contracted contents ; sometimes showing an internodal 
cell separating nodes with verticillate branches. Globular or oval vesicles (bulbils ?). 
* Knowlton, Amer. Journ. Science, vol. xxxvii, p. 202 ; Seward, Fossil Plants, vol. i, pp. 225-226. 
