BENNETTITES. 139 



America, Lester Ward l transfers Carruthers' species of Bennettites 

 to Buckland's genus Cycadeoidea ; he considers the fact of the 

 fruit being known in a single species, B. Gilsonianus, is not a 

 sufficient reason for the retention of the genus. Solms-Laubach 2 

 had previously restricted Carruthers' term to the species in 

 which the characters of the fructification are known, viz. 

 Bennettites Gibsonianus ; this use of the term is probably the 

 most convenient, and it would seem much better to retain 

 Carruthers' name for stems bearing the bennettitean inflorescence 

 than to include these under such a comprehensive and purely 

 provisional genus as Cycadeoidea. 



Bennettites (Cycadeoidea) Saxbyanus (Brown). 



1851. Cycadites Saxbyanus, Brown, Proc. Linn. Soc. vol. ii. p. 130. 



1854. Cycadeoidea Saxbyana, Morris, Brit. Foss. p. 7. 



1870. Bennettites Saxbyanus, Carruthers, Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. xxvi. p. 698. 



1874. Bennettites Saxbyanus, Schimper, Trait, pal. veg. vol. iii. p. 558. 



1878. Bennettites Saxbyanus, Carruthers, in Dixon's Geol. Sussex, p. 281. 



1894. Cycadeoidea Saxbyana, "Ward, Biol. Soc. Washington, vol. ix. p. 80. 



Type. Stems showing internal structure. British and Oxford 

 Museums. 



The specific name of this plant was proposed by Eobert Brown 

 in honour of Mr. Saxby, who found the first specimen near 

 Bonchurch, in the Isle of Wight. The following definition of 

 the species was given by Carruthers : 



" Trunk elliptical, with large medulla, and thin, much inter- 

 rupted woody cylinder, vascular bundles passing upwards and 

 outwards and breaking up into two rows of small bundles, which 

 are parallel to the superior and inferior surfaces of the petiole ; 

 section of petiole subtriangular." 



In accordance with the narrower use of the genus Bennettites, 

 as suggested by Solms and others, the present species ought to be 

 transferred to Buckland's Cycadeoidea^ but for the present it may 



1 Ward (1), p. 78. 



2 Capelliiii and Solms-Laubach, p. 29. 



