210 Royal Societ%\ 



display, the regularity of the sculpturing on their surfaces, and 

 various other points, suggested their belonging to a class of highly 

 organized vegetables. 



Thirdly. The fact of our being wholly unacquainted with the 

 organs of fructification belonging to the exogenous vegetation, which 

 also abounds in the coal formation, coupled with the assumed highly 

 organized nature of Trig ono car pon, favoured the assumption that 

 these might throw light upon one another, and seemed to afford a 

 legitimate basis upon which to proceed, should I ever procure speci- 

 mens of Trigonocarpon displaying structure, which I had long hoped 

 to do. 



It is, however, only since my return from India that I have been so 

 fortunate as to obtain good specimens, and for these I am indebted 

 to my friend Mr. Binney of Manchester, who has himself throwB^ 

 much light upon the vegetation of the coal epoch, and whose exer-, 

 t^ons indeed have alone enabled me to prosecute the subject ; since 

 Ke has not only placed his whole collection of Trigonocarpons at myj 

 disposal, but has shared with me the trouble and expense of their, 

 preparation for study. All the specimens were found imbedded in^ 

 a very tough and Lard black-band or clay ironstone, full of frag- 

 ments of vegetable matter, and which appears originally to have, 

 been a fine tenacious clay. ^ 



The individual Trigonocarpons are exposed by breaking this rock, 

 and are invariably so intimately adherent to the matrix as to be 

 fractured with it. A great many of these lumps of ironstone, con- 

 taining partially exposed Trigonocarpons, have been sliced by a lapi- 

 dary in the usual manner, and excessively thin sections taken on^ 

 slips of glass. The sections were made necessarily very much a^ 

 random, but as nearly as possible parallel, or at right angles to thfj 

 long diameter of the fruit. Five of the specimens thus operate4i 

 upon have proved instructive, presenting the same appearances, an^i 

 all being intelligible, and referable to one highly developed type of { 

 plants. As, however, the term * highly developed * may appear ambi-T| 

 guous, especially with reference to a higher or lower degree in the^ 

 scale of vegetable life, I may mention that by this term I mean tq( 

 imply that there are in the fruit of Trigonocarpon extensive modifi.-fj 

 cations of elementary organs, for the purpose of their adaptation ta^ 

 special functions, and that these modifications are as great, and the^ 

 adaptation as special, as any to be found amongst analogous fruits^ 

 in the existing vegetable world. tl 



Thus, I find that the integuments of the fruit of Trigonocarpon ar^j 

 each of them a special highly organized structure ; they are modifica-^,^ 

 tions of the several coats of one ovule, and indeed of the same num^^ 

 ber of integuments as now prevail in the ovules of living plants. q 



The number, structure and superposition of these, are strongly^' 

 indicative of the Trigonocarpons having belonged to that large sec^t 

 tion of existing coniferous plants, which bear fleshy, solitary fruits, 

 and not cones ; and they so strongly resemble the various parts of thCj 

 finiit of the Chinese genus Salisburia, that, in the present state of our^ 

 knowledge, it appears legitimate to assume their relationship to it. 



