FLORAS OF THE PAST. 463 



of lateral shoots bearing linear lanceolate scale-leaves. 

 These shoots terminated, at least in some species, in an 

 inflorescence of the type to which Carruthers gave the 

 name Williamsonia. Prof. Lester Ward 1 has suggested the 

 inclusion of all fossil cycadean stems in the sub-family 

 Cycadeoidese of Robert Brown. Seeing how distinct a 

 type the genus Bennettites represents, it is, I believe, much 

 better to retain the family Bennettiteae, and to use the generic 

 name Cycadeoidea of Buckland for certain fossil stems which 

 cannot be certainly referred to Bennettites. 1 In strata of 

 Wealden and Lower Greensand age stems of the Bennettites 

 type are fairly common ; by far the most numerous are 

 the large silicified stems from the Black Hills of Dakota, 

 from Maryland and other districts of North America. 3 

 The English species Bennettites Gibsoni Carr, from Lower 

 Greensand rocks, is the most perfectly preserved specimen 

 so far described ; other English species occur in the Purbeck 

 beds of Portland and elsewhere. From Italy, too, several 

 examples have been described by Counts Capellini and 

 Solms- Laubach. 



There are certain species of cycadean stems from 

 Wealden and Purbeck beds which agree with the recent 

 Cycads in having no lateral fertile shoots, and which may 

 probably have borne terminal flowers ; traces also of cyca- 

 dean flowers have been recorded. It would seem, then, that 

 both true Cycads and the extinct Bennettiteae were in 

 existence side by side in the Wealden period. Unfortu- 

 nately the cycadean fronds, such as species of Otozamites, 

 Dioonites, Zamites, etc., which 'are common Wealden fossils, 

 are found in the rocks apart from their stems, so that we 

 must speak of them as fronds of "cycadean" plants in the 

 wide sense, remembering that probably many of them were 

 borne by stems of the Bennettiteae. 



2. ConifercB. Among the numerous examples of coni- 

 ferous twigs, wood and leaves there are several species 

 which may be safely referred to definite genera of existing 



1 Ward (5), p. 5. 2 Seward (4). 



3 A splendid example of an American cycadean stem has recently been 

 added to the Fossil Plant Gallery of the British Museum. 



