-236 Royal Society, London. 



that this undescribed cone really belongs to the same plant as the 

 fragment of stem in the Williamson collection, and tliat the 

 latter might well be the peduncle of the former. At the same 

 time, 1 satisfield rnyself, and Mr. Kidston agreed with me, that 

 the whole Organisation of his cone is fundamentally different from 

 that of any Lepidostrobus, the decisive point being that the new 

 cone has Compound branched sporophylls, each of which bears a 

 number of sporangia. It became evident that this cone must be 

 placed in a new genus, and the conclusion arrived at from the 

 study of the peduncle was thus confirnied. 



Mr. Kidston most generously handed over his sections to 

 me for examination and description, and also obtained for me from 

 the owner the remains of the original block, from which 1 have 

 had a number of additional sections prepared. 



Only a single specimen of the cone is at present known. 

 Before cutting sections, the piece, which includes the base but not 

 the apex of the strobilus, was about 2 inches long. It was founcl 

 at Pettycur, near Burntisland, in 188o, by Mr. James Ben nie 

 of Edinburgh. The specimen is calcified, and its preservation is 

 remarkably perfect, so that the whole structure is well shown, 

 though the complexity of its Organisation renders the interpretation 

 in some respects difficult. 



The cone in its present somewhat flattened condition measures 

 about 5 cm by 2,3 cm in diameter. The diameter in its natural 

 State would have been at least 3,5 cm. That of the axis is about 

 7 mm, exactly the same as that of Williamson 's peduncle. 

 Thus the extreme length of the sporophylls, which have on the 

 whole an approximately horizontal course, is about 1,4 cm. 



The sporophylls are arranged in somewhat crowded verticils, 

 fourteen of which were counted in a length of an inch, 2,5 cm. 

 There are twelve leaves in each whorl, and the members of 

 successive whorls are accurately superposed, a fäct which is shown 

 with the greatest clearness in tangential sections of the cone. This 

 is evidently a point of great significance in considering the affinities 

 -of the fossil. 



The sporophylls themselves have a remarkably complex form. 

 At its insertion on the axis each sporophyll consists of a short 

 basal portion or phyllopodium ; the bases of the sporophylls 

 belonging to the same verticil are coherent. The sporophyll 

 branches immediately above its base, dividing into a superior and 

 an inferior lobe, which lie directly one above the other same radial 

 plane. Almost at the same point, each of the lobes subdivides in 

 a palmate manner into three segments, which assume a horizontal 

 course, whereas the common phyllopodium has an upward inclination. 

 It is probable that somethimes, especially at the base of the cone. 

 there may be two instead of three segments to each lobe. As a 

 rule, however, each sporophyll consists of six segments, of which 

 three belong to the superior (ventral or posterior) and three to the 

 inferior (dorsal or anterior) lobe. 



