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FOSSIL PLANTS. 
457 
Genus CAULOPTERIS, LI. and Hutt. 
III. Geol. Rep., vol. ii, p. 458. 
CAULOPTERIS OBTECTA, Sp. nov. . 7 ^,. u ., 0 , / 4)1.. 
PI. xxviii, fig. 1 to 4. fa 4m c -1 
Stems of small size, varying in thickness from four to six 
inches, entirely covered with long, linear, cylindrical, aerial 
rootlets, attached to it without relative order of position, bear¬ 
ing at their base an elongated oval scar. Branch scars dis¬ 
tant, oval obtuse at both ends, two to three inches long, one 
to one and a-half inches broad, marked lengthwise by broad 
striae, or marks of aerial roots. The rootlets are regularly cy¬ 
lindrical, one foot long or more, apparently tubulose, without 
trace of a medial vascular line, closely appressed to each other, 
and upon each other in the same downward direction, and so 
entirely covering the stem that their cicatrices are rarely dis¬ 
tinguishable. The branch scars are distant, as seen figs. 1 and 
2, which show both sides of the same part of a stem, and indi- 
cate the relative position of the scars. The order of position 
r' appears to be as one to four, but is obscured by the flattening 
of the stem, whose thickness is, by compression, reduced to 
one inch at the upper part, and to two inches at the lower 
part. A branch scar and part of stem are figured, natural 
size, fig. 3. The distance between these branch scars is so 
great, especially toward the base of the stem, that a number 
of specimens, some as large as one foot square, were collected 
at Colchester, and, though closely scrutinized, did not show 
any trace of them. 
■58 
