138 
On some Fossil Plants 
dicotyledonous plant, which, however, was so soft, friable, and 
carbonaceous, as to be very indistinct. 
Third. The compact and somewhat schistose argillaceous rock, 
from which the next series of specimens has been procured, 
exists in the immediate vicinity of Launceston. It is extensively 
distributed in pieces of various size, in, upon, and throughout 
the superficial bed of loam forming the Windmill Hill, there, it 
belongs, apparently, to the more recent era of the Pleiocene 
Period. It passes into a coarse-grained, gravelly, and ferrugi- 
nous sandstone, as is exemplified in various fragments. There is 
contained in it, amongst impressions of ferns not now extant, 
numerous casts of strap-shaped leaves and stems, (to which they 
were probably appendages at one time), together with casts of the 
bark, wood, and leaves of various trees, which, though exqui¬ 
sitely delineated, cannot be identified with any of the existing 
vegetation. 
But, besides these, there are many which I recognise as iden¬ 
tical with, or analogous to existing individuals, or tribes, viz.-— 
Transverse and other sections of rounded columnar bodies of 
a heterogeneous and red ochreous matter, exhibiting very closely 
the structure of the Fern tree tribe. 
Impressions of the imbricated twigs and leaves of two or three 
plants resembling species of Athrotaxis of our western mountains. 
Imbedded specimens of reed-like stems, partially charred. 
Bark of what may have been a fagus, or young coniferous tree. 
Numerous beautifully clear impressions of the leaves of euca- 
lypti ? 
Impressions of leaves of Oxylobium ? or Phebalium ? or both. 
Small specimens of ferruginised wood, such as is found with 
fragments of siliceous conifer®, on Salt Pan Plains, near Ross ; 
and with the well-established casuarina, on the south-east of 
Flinder’s Island, in Bass’s Straits. 
Cross section of what may have been a grass tree (Xanthorr- 
hoea), denuded of its exterior fibrous covering, or more probably 
yet, a palm, for it retains the marks of the setting on of leaves, 
forming oblique, spirally ascending, interrupted lines. 
