Ljcopodites, Ooldenberg (L. Stockii). 113 



historisclien Vereins der preussischen Rlieinlande at Kreuz- 

 nach I exliibited a pretty complete example, and also later, 

 in the Transactions of this Society, made some preliminary 

 remarks on the occurrence of such plants in the Carboniferous 

 formation. 1 succeeded later in discovering several other 

 species, of which some even bore distinctly their organs of 

 fructification. It then appeared that, as regards the position 

 and form of the fruit, these fossil remains agree completely in 

 all essential points with our living Lycopods. 



" The Lycopodites which we are about to describe may, like 

 our recent club-mosses, be placed in two subdivisions, accord- 

 ing to whether the sporangia are seated in tlie axils of the 

 leaves or form terminal cones." 



The six species described by Goldenberg are classed under 

 these two heads : — 



A. Sporangia placed in the leaf-axils. 



1. Lycopodites denticulatus^ Goldenberg. 



2. elongatuSj Gold. 



B. Sporangia forming terminal cones. 



'6. Lycopodites primcevus, Gold. 



4. Icptostachyus^ Gold. 



5. ■ mac tH)phy tilts, Gold. 



Q, taxinuSj L. & H., sp. 



In regard to his last-mentioned species^ which he identities 

 as Knorria taxina, L. & H., its claim to belong to the genus 

 Lycopodites rests on very slender grounds. 



His figure only shows a small portion of a stem 1^ inch 

 long and about \ inch wide, with spirally arranged leaf- 

 scars, in general form very like those of L. Stoclcii (PL V. 

 fig. 1) ; but this single character, as shown in Goldenberg's 

 figure, appears of too little importance to be of generic value. 



But apart from the question as to the systematic position 

 of Goldenberg's L. taxinus, it is clearly not the same fossil 

 as that named Knorria taxina by Lindley and Hutton. 



The specimen, from which the last-mentioned author's 

 plate is taken, is preserved in the " Hutton collection," New- 

 castle-on-Tyne. Tiiis I have compared with their figure, 

 which, I am sorry to say, is not a very correct representation 

 of the fossil. I believe Lindley and Hutton's plant is merely 

 a small stem of Cordaites, certainly a quite different plant 

 from Goldenberg's Ljycopodites taxinus. 



In the same year (1855) in which Goldenberg described 



