4 RECORDS OF THE AUSTRALIAN MUSEUM, 



(3.) This (PI. i., fig. 1) is the largest of the three small cones, 

 and is eighteen millimetres in length. Under the coaly pellicle 

 which practically constitutes the fossil, the shale is impressed 

 with narrow transverse node-like constrictions, from which the 

 leaves spring in upward succession, streaming above the apex of 

 the cone. 



(4.) The smallest of the two larger cones (PI. ii., fig. 2) is 

 twenty-seven millimetres long by thirteen wide (as compressed). 

 Here the nodal lines are very apparent, each giving support to a 

 row of delicate leaves, rather broad at the base, but fine and 

 acicular above. The apical portions are bent outwards at an 

 acute angle, and are visible at the sides of the cone. 



(5.) The fifth cone (PI. ii., fig. 1) only differs from the last 

 slightly in size, otherwise exhibiting precisely the same characters ; 

 it is thirty millimetres long, and seventeen broad. 



It is unfortunate that neither of these organs is seen in longi- 

 tudinal section, nor wholly denuded of its bracts. The more intimate 

 structure is therefore inaccessible, and it is impossible to say with 

 certainty whether the verticils of leaves are sterile bracts alter- 

 nating with fertile organs (sporangiophores) concealed or no. Nor, 

 under these circumstances, can it be surmised whether these 

 strobili agree in their structure with the loose strobilus of Equi- 

 setum on the one hand, or with the more complex fructification 

 ascribed by authors to Phyllotheca. 



The loose strobilus figured by Schmalhausen as that of P. 

 deliquescens, notwithstanding that the whorls of peltate organs 

 were protected by the alternating cycles of sterile bracts, would 

 hardly prepare one for the appearance of these close cone-like 

 strobili. The former we can picture as longitudinally elongate 

 and narrow bodies, very different in appearance to the present 

 cones. Just at the point this inquiry becomes especially interest- 

 ing, it has to be abandoned, temporarily it is to be hoped, however. 

 All that can be advanced at present is that, just as one form of 

 Phyllotheca-like plant is associated in our Upper Coal Measures 

 with a Cingularia foliage ; so another, equally Phyllotheca-like, 

 produces cone-like strobili, differing in outward appearance, at 

 least, from what one would have anticipated. 



As a matter of general resemblance only, attention may be 

 called to the cone of Macrostachya, which— allowing for the more 

 elongated form, and the short acicular terminations of the bracts, 

 instead of the long bent over apices in our cones — presents an 

 unmistakable resemblance. 



The specimens are from the Upper Coal Measures (Permo- 

 Carboniferous) at Shepherd's Hill, Newcastle, and were collected 

 by Messrs. John Mitchell and C. Hedley. 



