34 Annals of the South African Museum. 



Other Specimens : A, a specimen 7 cm. long by 6"5 broad, 

 convex in section, and evidently a portion of a broad scale-leaf 

 folded on itself ; veins clearly defined. 265c, a good example of 

 the basal portion of Cycadolejns (Zamites on the reverse side). 

 305c, 313c, 314c, a specimen about 10 cm. long show^ing the 

 /eins over part of the sm^face. 313c, with Zamitcs pinnae. 

 320c, a good impression of part of a Cycadolejns showing the 

 line of attachment at the base and the spreading veins. The 

 broad base of the midrib is clearly preserved. A fragment of 

 Onychiopsis on the reverse side. 321c, with Zamites and ? Boi- 

 stedtia. 324c, 326c {cf 305c), 335c, and Zamites, 336c, 371c. 



Genus BENSTEDTIA. 



In 1862 Mr. Mackie " described and figured a fossil stem from 

 Lower Greensand rocks in Kent, which Konig named Draccena hen- 

 stedtii. This name was adopted by Morris t and by Mantell. In 

 1868 Carruthers ;|: expressed the opinion that the fossils discovered 

 by Mr. Bensted presented a closer resemblance to Pandanus than to 

 Draccena, but Gardner § afterwards alluded to the specimens as 

 possibly cycadean. An examination of Mackie 's original specimen 

 in the British Museum, and of other examples from Lower Green- 

 sand and Wealden rocks, led me to adopt the view" that Konig' s 

 Draccena is in all probability the stem of a cycad. In most recent 

 cycads the surface of the stem is encased in an armour of persistent 

 leaf-bases, but in Zamia {e.g., Z. skinneri Warsz., Z. loddigesii 

 Miq., &c.) and in Cycas siamensis Miq. the leaf -bases are replaced 

 by a corky investment bearing numerous oval protuberances and 

 irregular transverse wrinklings. This close resemblance between 

 the fossil and recent stems caused me to institute a new generic 

 name, Benstedtia,\\ to be applied to such fossil stems as agree in 

 surface features with cycadean trunks of the Zamia type. Ben- 

 stedtia is defined as follows : — 



" Stems having the surface marked by irregular and interrupted 

 grooves and broader ridges running transversely, with occasional 

 small elliptical protuberances irregularly disposed on the sui'face of 

 the stem. No distinct leaf-scars ; branch-scars may be present, and 

 in addition to smaller lateral branches, a bifurcation of the stem 



* Mackie (62), pi. xxii. f Morris (54), p. 8. 



+ Carruthers (68), p. 154 (footnote). 



§ Gardner (86), p. 201. || Seward (96). 



