102 CAEPOLITHES. 



uncommon, but their preservation is usually imperfect, and not 

 such as to throw any appreciable light on their exact botanical 

 position. The Wealden strata of England have as yet been 

 searched in vain, for any satisfactory indications of the existence 

 of angiospermous plants in the flora of that period, and this fact 

 leads us to the assumption that most probably the Wealden seeds 

 are either coniferous or cycadaceous. There are, however, the 

 detached tubers of Equisetites Burchaidti, Dunk., and E. Yokoyama, 

 Sew., which may easily be mistaken for seeds. In the first part 

 of this Catalogue ' doubt was expressed as to the nature of the 

 oval bodies described as seeds by Stokes and Webb, and Mantell, 

 and by some authors referred to Equisetites. 



The name CarpolitJies was proposed by Sternberg as a convenient 

 and comprehensive genus for "Fructus seminavi mono- vel dicoty- 

 ledonea, solitaria, structura interna plane obliterata." This term 

 has been adopted by many authors as a designation for isolated 

 seeds of doubtful position, and its use is in most cases more 

 appropriate than any term indicative of some special class or group 

 of plants. In 1849 Pomel proposed Ulospermum? as a generic name 

 for fossil " fruits " resembling those of the recent Cycadacea, but 

 this term, like many others suggested by the same writer, has 

 not been generally accepted. Schimper instituted the genus 

 Cycadinocarpus, 3 for " Semina subglobosa, ovata vel oblonga, 

 quoad magnitudinem valde variantia, nunc parvula, nunc majora 

 volumenque Castanese attingentia ; epidermide plus minus crassa 

 instructa, laavia, haud raro compressione mutua angulosa, epi- 

 dermide destituta solida, lignea, sublaevia, striata, costata vel 

 reticulata, basi insertionis cicatrice lata notata, apice minute 

 apiculata." In 1875 Saporta substituted Cycadospermum, as a 

 more fitting name for detached cycadean seeds than Schimper's 

 genus Cycadinocarpiis, on the grounds of an implied misconception 

 of the exact morphological nature of the seeds of cycads. The 

 genus is thus defined: "Semina e carpophyllis distracta post 

 maturationem in strata pervagata nunc majora nunc plus minusve 

 parvula, plerumque ovata ovatoque-oblonga haud raro compressione 



1 Vol. i. pp. 27, 28. 



2 Pomel, p. 16. 



3 Trait, pal. veg. vol. ii. p. 208. 



