III.—Note on the genus Hastimima from Brazil and the Cape

Extract

Professor seward has called my attention to Figs. 5 and 6 on Plate XXVIII, which accompanies his notes on Fossil Plants from Cape Colony. These fragmentary impressions of organic remains have been compared by him with similar doubtful plant-remains figured by Dr. David White from the Coal-measures of Brazil (see Commissao dos Estudos das Minas de Carvão de Pedra do Brasil, Estampa x and xi. Final Report by J. C. White, Rio de Janeiro, 1908, p. 589.) Dr. White had already doubted the vegetable nature of the specimens from Brazil, which doubt is shared by Professor Seward, but the latter expresses himself more definitely against the plant-nature of Figs. 5 and 6, Pl. XXVIII, from the Witteberg Series of Cape Colony. He has, in fact, suggested that they “represent part of a body-segment of a Eurypterid.” In this opinion I cordially agree. I also wish to add a word about the specimens figured under the name of Hastimima by Dr. David White from the Coal-measures of Brazil.