\ 
FROM THE SECONDARY ROCKS OF BRITAIN. 5 
axis was prolonged to support a cone.* Mr. Yates, whose extensive 
acquaintance with Cjcadea is well known, and who has greatly helped 
me in my investigations, not only with his advice but also by presenting 
his large collection of dried specimens of Cycadean stems, foliage and 
fruit, to the British Museum, saw no indication of this cone in the 
numerous specimens he examined. He says, regarding this fossil f 
that its pinnate leaves " have unquestionably a my close resemblance 
to the leaves of Zamia. But here the analogy seems to cease. The 
stem does not resemble the stem or the mode of growth of any recent 
species of Zamia, and a still greater difficulty presents itself in its 
fruit." Mr. Yates considers that the « collar " contains the fruit, and 
Prof. Williamson seems to have ultimately arrived at the same conclu- 
sion, for he says t the fossil contains two distinct forms of fruits. 
" The one, a curious scaly axis, prolonged in a peculiar piriform 
manner, which latter part has been invested by a cortical substance, 
consisting of oblong cells arranged perpendicularlv to the axis. This 
was probably the antheriferous portion. The second form consists of 
a concave disk, which has evidently terminated the woody axis, and 
been margined by a peripheral circle of radiating bracts. On the 
upper portion of each of these bracts are two small oblong depressions 
which may have supported two ovnles." I have examined numerous 
specimens of this fossil in the British Museum, but have been unable 
to determine satisfactorily anything in regard to the precise structure 
of this anomalous fruit. It presents so many peculiarities unknown in 
the fruit of any modern Cycad, that for the present at least, and not- 
withstanding its Zamia-like leaves, I must consider it a doubtfnl Cycad. 
The cones I am about to describe have several features in common 
winch show that they belong to this Order. They have all the simple 
arrangement, or phyllotaxis of the scales of the cones. The peduncle 
when indications of it are present, as in C. elegam and C. truHcat,,*, 
is larger than in Coniferous cones of the same size. The cones are 
converted into iron pyrites, a mineral condition unfavourable to the 
preservation of structure, but the arrangement of the mineral shows 
that the general direction of the parts of which the cone WW composed 
was at right angles to the axis (Tab. LVII. Fig. 2). A specimen 
from the collection of the late Robert Brown, which he had sliced, 
* Proceedings of York P1.il. Soc, 18 17, p. 4(5. + i b „ 39 
t Transactions of the British Association, 185 J, p. 103. ' 
