On Palæoxyris and other Allied Fossils from the Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire Coalfield

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Abstract
I n a more or less careful examination of this coalfield, with a view to the compilation of a comprehensive catalogue of its flora, so many specimens of Palæoxyris have been found that it seems to me advisable to record such facts as the new material affords in relation to their structure. To the solution of the problem as to their true nature, however, this mass of material gives, unfortunately, no clue. These curious organisms have been known for many years, and have been the subject of many papers and controversies; notably a paper by Dr. R. Kidston, giving a very careful description and figures of such species as were known to him from British rocks, to which he added a complete bibliography up to 1885. The first recorded specimen from British Carboniferous rocks was found in Coalbrookdale. It is figured as Carpolites helicteroides , and was supposed to be a fruit. A. Brongniart, however, in 1828 had described an allied fossil under the name of Palæoxyris regularis —this name having been given, owing to its supposed resemblance to the inflorescence of the recent Xyris . Prestl described them from the New Red Sandstone (? Rhætic) of Bamberg. A. Schenk, in 1867, called attention to the resemblance of these organisms to the egg-cases of fishes, comparing them with those of certain Elasmobranchs; but he did not consider the resemblance close enough to warrant their transference to the animal kingdom. Later, however, in 1888, having had further opportunities for comparison, he advocated the view that

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