^^^ 22 1§01 



CONE-LIKE STROBILI ATTACHED to a PHYLLOTHECA- 

 LIKE FOLIAGE. 



By R. Etheridge, Junr., Curator. 



(Plates i.- ii.) 



Many years have elapsed since the late Professor Sir E. McCoy 

 drew attention to what he considered the inflorescence of Phyllo- 

 tlieca^ notwithstanding that he misunderstood its nature. Since 

 1847, the year in which McCoy wrote, Heer and Schmalhausen 

 have both described strobili, believed by them to be the re- 

 productory condition of this interesting and widely distributed 

 Permo-Carboniferous plant. The announcement has lately been 

 made that Professor R. Zeiller has, or is about to publish, addi- 

 tional information afforded by specimens from Asia Minor. 



To render the account of the little fossils now under considera- 

 tion clear, it will be necessary to review the descriptions of the 

 parts referred to by the authors mentioned. 



McCoy's infloresence consisted of a " portion of a branch with 

 the joints more approximate than on other parts of the plant, 

 their length being scarcely equal to their diameter ; the sheaths 

 are the exact length of the internodes, and fringed on their upper 

 margin with a dense little whorl of (I think two-celled) anthers." 

 To judge by the figure only, I am inclined to say that the inflores- 

 cence consisted of a stem giving support to stalked structures 

 bearing sporangiophores, without the intervention of intermediate 

 sterile bracts, thus approximating to the strobilus of Eqiiisetum. 



Mr. Schmalhausen figured" two forms of fructification somewhat 

 difierent from one another, as those of Phyllotheca deliquescens, 

 Gopp. One of these" consists of a loose strobilus in the form of 

 a stem bearing clusters of peltate and stalked appendages (sporan- 

 giophores), between whorls of sterile leaves or bracts. The other 

 figure^ difiers from the first in so far that sterile bracts alternating 

 with the fruit-bearing organs appear to be absent. On the first 



1 McCoy— Ann. Mag. Nat. Hist., xx., 1847, p. 155. 



2 Schmalhausen — Beitrage Jura-Flora Eusslands, 1879, p. 68, pi. ix., 

 figs. 16-17. 



3 Loc. cit., figs. 16, 16a. 

 * Loc. cit., fig. 17. 



