CONE-LIKE STROBILI — ETHERIDGE. 3 



unearthed in the Upper Coal Measures of New South Wales, and 

 distributed throughout the world since 1828, when Brongniart 

 first named ^^ the type P. australis, that during this lengthened 

 period, McCoy's example is the only trace of actual fructification 

 recorded in an Australian specimen. 



Under these circumstances it naturally affords me great pleasure 

 to describe from the Upper Coal Measures at Newcastle, compact 

 cones attached to a Phylloiheca-\ike stem and foliage, differing 

 entirely in aspect from the loose strobili mentioned by Schmal- 

 hausen, Solms-Laubach, and Seward. 



There are five well formed cones, varying from seven millimetres 

 to thirty millimetres in length. The associated stems and leaves 

 are to my eye identical with a figure termed liy Dr. 0. Feistmantel 

 P. australis, Brong.,^- in which the stem and branches are divided 

 into semi-vase like internodes (Plate i., fig. 2 ; PI. ii., fig. 4). 

 Similar stem or branch portions are scattered over the surface 

 of the specimens, accompanied by the cones under description, 

 and in one case with one of the smaller cones attached. 



In the different stem fragments the internodes are from five to 

 ten millimetres long, and an average pressure diameter of three 

 to four millimetres. Each internode expands somewhat from 

 below upwards ; the sheaths are short, but seem to be strong, and 

 give support to at least twenty long linear and delicate uninervate 

 leaves, which do not cling to or embrace the stem, but radiate at 

 a low augle in a very free and open manner, forming, when seen 

 in elevation, gracefully curved outlines (PI. i., fig. 4; PI. ii., fig. 5). 

 There are other larger stem fragments on the same pieces of 

 shale, and of which the smaller portions may be the branches. 



The state of preservation of the cones does not lend itself to de- 

 tailed description. They are bipyramidal or elongately-pyriform, 

 attached by a narrow short pedicel to the last node of the branch, 

 densely clothed with small linear leaves, which differ very markedly 

 from the ordinary leaves springing from the sheaths in their size 

 and extreme delicacy. The structure of the respective examples 

 is as follows : — 



(1.) The smallest cone (PI. i., fig. 2) is seven millimetres long, 

 slender, elongately-pyriform, and is attached to a portion of a 

 branch. It is clothed witli the comparatively long upwardly 

 streaming leaves already described, but no other characters can 

 be made out. 



(2.) This cone (PI. i., fig. 3) is shorter and broader than the 

 first, unequally bi-pyramidal, the lower portion assuming a pedun- 

 culate appearance. It is fourteen millimetres long, just double 

 that of the former. Again nothing is visible but the leaf clothing. 



11 Brongniart— Prodrome, 1828, p. 152. 



12 Palaeontographica, Sup. Bd. iii.. Lief. 3, Heft 2, 1878, pi. vii., fig. 1. 



