2 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM. 



of these illustrations Count Solms-Laubach makes"' the following 

 remarks : "A striated axis with sheaths thoroughly like those of 

 Phyliotheca, bears on the internodes between the sheaths in a 

 lateral position certain small organs, which are exactly like the 

 sporangiferous peltate disks of our Equiseta." In the words^ of 

 Seward, " in PJiyllotlieca the sporangiophores appear to have been 

 given off in whorls, which were separated from one another by 

 whorls of sterile bracts, whereas in Equisetum there are no sterile 

 appendages associated with the sporangiophores of the strobilus 

 with the exception of the aiinulus at the base of the cone." . 



In the case of McCoy's illustration, if the presence of inter- 

 mediate sterile or normal leaves could be shown to exist, which 

 is certainly not shown on the figure, the correspondence with 

 Schmalhausen's illustration would be very close, the supposed 

 " anthers " being probably equivalent to the sporangiophores. 

 The absence of these organs indicates in McCoy's Phyliotheca a 

 much nearer approach to the wholly fertile whorls in the strobilus 

 of Eqxhisetibin. 



In 1880, the late Prof. Oswald Heer figured" two cones in con- 

 tiguity to a Phyllotheca-Wke stem from Siberia, on which Solms- 

 Laubach remarks'^:— " Heer is not justified in uniting with his 

 Phyliotheca sibirica two spikes of another species . . . merely 

 because they lie beside it on the specimen." It would appear 

 from this that these cones have nothing to do with Phyliotheca. 



A further instance of inflorescence has been discovered by 

 Prof. R. Zeiller-' in connection with Phyliotheca remains from 

 Asia Minor, but I have not access to his description. The strobili 

 are said to resemble the long and narrow cones of Annidaria, 

 composed of linear lanceolate sterile bracts and sporangiophores, 

 and therefore in no great degree difl'ering from Schmalhausen's 

 description and figures. 



To sum up, and discarding Heer's cones, it may be stated that 

 at least two satisfactory instances of fertile shoots are known in 

 Phyllolheca-Vikt', plants — that of P. deliquescens (Gcipp.), Schmal- 

 hausen, and P. ralli, Zeiller ; probably a third — that of the Aus- 

 tralian plant figured by McCoy ; and possibly even a fourth exists 

 in the form of the Cingularia-Mke foliage, introduced to notice'" 

 some time ago by myself. It is a very remarkable fact, when we 

 consider the hundreds of Phyliotheca fragments that have been 



^ Solms-Laubach— Fossil Botany by Garnsey and Balfour, 1891, p. 181. 

 <"' Seward— Fossil Plants, 1., 1898, p. 286. 



7 Heer — Flora Foss. Arctica, vi., abth. 1, 1880, pi. i., fig. 5 b and c. 



8 Solms-Laubach— Fossil B)tany by Garnsey and Balfour, 1891, p. 181. 

 'J Seward— Fossil Plants, i., 1898, p. 282. 



10 Rec. Geol. Surv. N.S.W., iv., t, 1895, p. 151. 



