AN APPRECIATION. 127 



I should have liked a few more illustrations of the 

 Cycad leaves, but covetous man will never stop ! At a 

 later period I will write to you again when I have had 

 time to go through the volume and when I may like to 

 make a few things clear in my own mind. 



In PI. xix. I see you have grouped together under 

 one name (Pinites SolmsiJ what I have always regarded as 

 two clearly distinct species of cones, and what I was 

 under the impression you agreed with me to be such. 

 Figs. 1 and 3 I have always regarded as quite distinct 

 from 2 and 4. The bracts of the former are always 

 round ; the cone is shorter, and smaller, and more obtuse 

 at base and apex as compared with the latter, which has a 

 pointed bract as shewn in association with the foliage 

 shewn in PI. xviii., fig. 2. I have never met with the 

 rounded form in association with the other, although the 

 other is rather common in some parts and I have seen 

 dozens, but have never been led to link them with the 

 former. 



Did you ever examine the spores and spore-cases of 

 that Club-Moss (?) or could you not make anything of 

 them ? With regard to the reticulated markings on the 

 disc of Bennettites, I have a specimen from which it 

 appears that the reticulated ridges represent the spaces 

 between and around closely packed hollow hairs. In 

 some cases the hairs appear to have been preserved, in 

 which case they permeate the matrix at an angle and are 

 shewn in the centre of the mesh by a black dot or ring. 

 In most cases, however, the hairs have apparently been 

 destroyed when these only left the casts around the bases. 



