Palaeontologie. 335 



have not grown on the spot where we now find them, for the 

 foUowing reasons. In one nodule out of a number which were 

 joined together by the surrounding coal we have a portion 

 of a Stigmaria, while the surrounding noduies show no trace 

 of Stigmaria. If these plants had grown on the spot, we 

 should have certainly found, where we had an abundance of 

 noduies, that these stems would have been continued from no- 

 dule to notule, but that is not so. The natural conclusion is 

 that the various portions of plants have been carried to their 

 present position after being broken in fragments, and before 

 petrifaction, or they have been carried from a parent bed after 

 petrifaction. ^___ Arber (Cambridge). 



Oliver, F. W. and Scott, D. H., On Lagenostoma Lomaxi, 



the seed of Lyginodendron. (Proc. Royal Sog. Vol. LXXI. 



1903. p. 477—481.) 



This preliminary note contains the first definite evidence of 



the fructification of any member of the Cycadofilices. It is shown 



that a seed, named by Williamson Lagenostoma Lomaxi, 



belongs to Lyginodendron. 



Lagenostoma Lomaxi Will. M. S. is a hitherto undescribed 

 orthotropous seed, about S'/l- mm, in height, whose general 

 form may be compared with a Jaffa orange. In the most general 

 relations of its Organisation the seed approaches the Gymno- 

 spermous type in that the integument and nucellus are distinct 

 from one another in the apical region only, whilst the body of 

 the seed, which contains a large single macrospore with traces 

 of prothallial tissue, shows complete fusion of the integumental 

 and nucellar tissue. The free portion of the nucellus which 

 Stands above the macrospore is conical in form. The tapering 

 apex reaches to the exterior, plugging the micropylar aperture 

 like a cork. The whole of this structure, the „lagenostome'* 

 of Williamson, constitutes a pollen Chamber, which has the 

 form of a bell-shaped cleft situated between the persistent 

 epidermis and the central cone of nucellar tissue. The integu- 

 ment becomes massive and complicated in its free part, and in 

 this region it is usually composed of nine Chambers, radially 

 disposed around the micropyle. The whole structure, as seen 

 from within, is like a fluted dome or canopy. The vascular 

 System of the seed originates from a single supply-bundle, which 

 divides into nine radially-running branches, ending in the tips 

 of the Chambers of the canopy. 



Lagenostoma Lomaxi is in some cases found to be still 

 attached to its pedicel, and when young, and sometimes even 

 at maturity, it is enclosed in an envelope or cupule springing 

 from the pedicel just below the base of the seed, and extending 

 above the micropyle. The cupule appears to have been ribbed 

 below, and deeply lobed in its upper part, and in form may 

 be roughly com.pared to the husk of a hazel-nut on a very 



