A Pictorial Atlas of Fossil Remains, consisting of coloured illustrations selected from Parkinson's "Organic remains of a former world," and Artis's "Antediluvian phytology."

by Gideon Algernon Mantell

"Slender Myriophyllite."

The fossil here figured seems to approximate very closely to the Hydatica; but Mr. Artis describes the plant under the generic name of Myriophyllites;—M. gracilis. The stem is herbaceous and slender, terminating in a point; it is thickly covered with hair-like leaves.

It was found imbedded horizontally, in detached masses, separated from the great mass of vegetable matter which covers the coal, by an intervening layer of shale. It is rarely met with in the same bed with other vegetables, but generally in solitary and thin strata, taking a horizontal position; so that by riving the shale which contains these plants, numbers of them are disclosed on the same surface. In its general aspect this fossil vegetable resembles the trailing roots of some aquatic plants.

Plate XIII.

PLATE XIII.

"Branched Calamite."