1G7 
The Fossil Plants. 
history in as far as we can study the Jiving 1 Club 
Mosses. Tlie name Club Moss suggests some resem- 
blance to true mosses, but they also combine in 
themselves features usually associated with ferns and 
conifers. 
Sir Frederick McCoy figured a specimen show- 
ing the fructification of Phyllotheca. The illus- 
tration can be found in Volume I., Part 3, of 
the Papers and Proceedings of the Royal Society 
of Van Diemen's Land, issued in January, 1851. 
Up to the present time no better examples of 
the fructification of this plant have been discovered- 
Impressions of Phyllotheca are astonishingly abun- 
dant in some of the shales of the Permo-Carboni- 
ferous at Newcastle, and in the carbonaceous shales 
near Narrabeen. We have here an inviting and 
fei tile held of research for the amateur geologist. 
Phyllotheca played an important part in the physi- 
cal geography and geology of the country around 
Sydney long ages ago. Forests of it covered the 
land before any one continent as we know them 
to-day was finally raised from beneath the sea. 
Its woody stems formed beds of coal, and its spores 
gathered into beds now represented by highly in- 
flammable shales. Yet practically nothing is known 
of the life-history of Phyllotheca. There is material 
more than enough in the shales— Nature’s cabinets 
along our seaboard to stock the museums of the 
world. It only awaits the energy of some student 
to piece together the scattered fragments and read 
