REVIEWS. 
73 
A plant referred by the late Professor Forbes to the genus Lepidodendron, 
was found by the Government surveyors in the upper sandstone beds of 
Kiltorcan, near Knocktopher, a specimen of which is figured in Sir Charles 
Lyell’s “ Manual of Geology” (fifth edition, p. 418). This plant appears 
to be identical with the Lepidodendron minutum found in the carboniferous 
slate of Tallow-bridge, by Mr. Griffith. May not the “ apparent fern, with 
kidney-shaped leaflets,” of Dr. Fleming be the Cyclopteris Hibernica of 
Professor Forbes ? 
“ Above this middle formation lies the upper old red sandstone, with its pecu¬ 
liar group of organisms, chiefly fishes. And of it, too, much remains to be known. 
Save that it bas not yet produced a Coccosteus —a genus which seems restricted to 
the oldest ichthyic group of the system—its fishes more resemble those of the 
lower than of the middle old red. It has its three species of Pterichthys , its 
Diplopterus , and apparently its Dipterus ; and its Celacanths, chiefly of the Holop- 
tychian genus, represent, not inadequately, the Celacanths of the genera Asterolepis 
and Glyptolepis , which occur chiefly, though not exclusively, in the lower forma¬ 
tion. The two formations appear, however, to have no species in common.” 
The absence of Coccosteus from the upper red sandstones of Scotland, 
is probably due only to its rarity, as this genus, associated with Dendrodus, 
has been found in the corresponding beds in Ireland. 
u I must mention, ere concluding this part of my subject, a curious fact connected 
with the flora of the formation. When visiting, last spring, the Museum of Eco¬ 
nomic Geology, in Jermyn-street, under the friendly guidance of the late Professor 
Edward Forbes, he pointed out to me an interesting group of plants, in a fine state 
of keeping, which had been derived from the old red sandstone of Ireland. The 
genera seemed identical with those of the coal measures, but all the species were 
different. I marked, among the others, an elegant Cyclopteris ( Cyclopteris Hi¬ 
bernica ), of which Sir Roderick Murchison figures a single pinna in his recently pub¬ 
lished 1 Siluria.’ The professor also introduced me to the only ichthyic organism that 
had been found in the Irish deposit, with the plants, a ganoidal fish, apparently a 
Celacanth, and very much of the type of those of the upper formation, though I 
failed to identify the species with any of those already known. Professor Forbes, 
in return, visited my collection here only a few weeks ago ; and in a fern of this 
upper deposit, laid open by our ingenious member, Mr. John Stewart, in Preston- 
haugh quarry, near Dunse, he recognised his Irish Cyclopteris. As Mr. Stewart 
found the Scotch specimen associated with plates of Pterichthys major and scales of 
Holoptychius Nobilissimus —two of the most characteristic ichthyolites of the upper 
formation—there can be no hesitation in assigning to it its place in the scale ; and, 
of course, its position as an upper old red fossil in Scotland may be held to deter¬ 
mine that of the interesting group to which it is found to belong on the Irish side of 
the channel.” 
An interesting field is here opened up for Scottish geologists in the flora 
of their old red system, and it promises to connect the geology of that 
system in Scotland with the corresponding groups of the south of Ireland. 
The Irish Devonian beds are nearly destitute of fish remains, but contain 
occasionally abundant traces of vegetation, the remains of which are more 
or less well preserved, and it is not improbable that Scotch and Irish geo¬ 
logists may ultimately be enabled to compare their old red systems by 
