66 J\Ir. E. Kidston on British Carhoniferous Lycopods. 



Mill, Water of Leith, Midlothian ; collected bj Mr. James 

 Bennie. Wardie, near Granton, Midlothian ; collected by 

 Dr. J. M. Macfarlane, F.R.S.E. Little Whickhope Burn, 

 near first branch above Cross Sike, Northumberland ; com- 

 municated by Mr. H. Miller, F.R.S.E. 

 Horizon. Calciferous Sandstone Series. 

 Tn my ' Catalogue of Paleeozoic Plants in the Collection of 

 the British Museum ' * I stated the belief that the leaf-scar 

 of Cyclostigma, Haughton f, did not differ in any character 

 from those of Rhytidodendrori, which is now known to be 

 synonymous with Bothrodtndron. Last year I had the oppor- 

 tunity of examining the fine collection of Kiltorkan fossils in 

 the Science and Art Museum, Dublin, and in the collection 

 of the Geological Survey of Ireland, Dublin, and this has 

 confirmed my opinion that Cyclostigma should be merged in 

 Bothrodendron . 



The fructification of the Coal-measure Bothrodendra is but 

 imperfectly known, and, so far as I am aware, the only cone 

 identified with the Coal-measure members of the genus is that 

 with short bracts figured in this communication. The cones, 

 however, of the Cyclostigma kiltorhense are provided with 

 long, linear, lanceolate bracts with a subtriangular base, on 

 which the spores are borne. These have been figured by 

 Schimper as Lepidostrohus Bailyanus \. Their whole struc- 

 ture reminds one much of Sigillarian cones. 



At present so little is known about the fructification of the 

 various sj)ecies of Bothrodendron that on this important point 

 a comparison cannot be made between the members of the 

 genus ; but so long as the generic characters of these Lyco- 

 pods are fonnded on the structure of the leaf-scar, Cyclo- 

 stigma must be enrolled in the older genus Bothrodendron. 



I am aware that the description of the leaf-scar of Cyclo- 

 stigma that I now give differs in some important points from 

 that given by Dr. Haughton § and by Heer ||, as also from 

 the figures and descriptions given by this last-mentioned 

 author in his ' Fossile Flora der Biiren Insel ; ' but in many 

 of the specimens a certain amount of shrinkage appears to 

 have taken place which may have reduced the leaf-scars to 

 the condition in wliich many of them occur. Be this as it 

 may, the fact remains that when well-preserved examples 



* P. 236. 



t Ann. & Mag. Nat. Hist. ser. 3, vol. v. p. 443 (1860). 



\ Traits d. pal^ont. v^gtSt. vol. ii. p. 71, pi. Lxi. fig. 9. 



§ L. c. p. 13. 



II Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xxviii. p. 109, pi. iv. 



