366 Palaeontologie. 



The Chief conclusion arrived at irom a study of these new 

 seeds relates to the light which they throw on the habit of 

 members of the Pteridospermeae. In neither L. Kidstoni nor 

 L. Slnclairi is there any direct evidence as to the type of 

 sterile frond with which they were associated, but the general 

 morphology of the branched axes bearing the seeds Inciicates 

 that they are best regarded as portions of a Compound frond 

 of the Sphenopteris type with reduced lamina. There is every 

 reason to beHeve that these new species, which in the mor- 

 phology of their seed-bearing axes approach so closely to the 

 foHar Organs of Lyg'uiodendron, and, in their seeds, agree so 

 well with L. Lomaxi, were borne by stems either of Lygino- 

 dendron itself, or of some closely related member of the same 

 family possessing the Sphenopteris form, of sterile foliage. 



There is, therefore, to be found in these specimens the first de- 

 finite clue to the habit of the Ly ginodendreae with regard to the 

 manner in which the female fructification was borne. If this con- 

 clusion is correct, we may picture these plants as bearing, in 

 addition to numerous highly-compound fronds of the Sphe- 

 nopteris type, others in which the lamina was wholly or par- 

 tially reduced, and in which the ultimate branches terminated 

 in seeds, with or without a „cupular" Investment. 



Arber (Cambridge). 



Berridge, E. M., On two new specimens of Spencerites 

 insignis. (Annais of Botany. Vol. XIX. No. LXXIV. p. 

 273—279. Plates XI. and XII. With text-figures 2— 4. 1905.) 



Of the strobilus, Spencerites insignis, four examples only 

 are known at present. Two further specimens, however, have 

 been recently obtained, which are chiefly remarkable for the 

 good preservation of the sporophylls. They differ in several 

 respects from those previously described by Dr. Scott, and 

 this paper deals with the points of difference. 



The new specimens are rather large examples of the fossil, 

 the diameter of the axis being 5 mm. which is the maximum 

 measurement given by Dr. Scott for the cones. The primary 

 wood of the axis surrounds a well-marked pith near the centre 

 of which a Strand of thick-walled cells occurs. 



The protoxylems of the woody cylinder are about twenty 

 in number, this corresponding to the number of orthostichies 

 of sporophylls. The inner cortex is similar to that of the spe- 

 cimens previously described, but the outer cortex is evidently 

 very variable in this genus. In the present specimens it ap- 

 pears to be diffcrentiated into two zones, the outer, uniformly 

 thickened and without the Dictyoxylon character, and the inner^ 

 composed of delicate thin-walled tissue. 



It is evident from the position of the leaf traces that the 

 sporophylls were arranged in alternating verticils, each whorl 

 consisting of ten sporophylls. The phyllotaxis, however, is re- 



