BENNETTITES. 145 



casts of the bases of crowded involucral bracts. The bracts them- 

 selves are represented partly by cavities and partly by carbonaceous 

 matter ; between the bracts the woolly or hair-like ramenta 

 are distinctly shown, and these, as frequently happens in such 

 tissue in cycadean stems, have been permeated by a mineralizing 

 solution, and so preserved. The bracts appear to be somewhat 

 expanded distally (PI. XV. Fig. 2), as described by Lignier 

 in Bennettites Iforierei (Sap. and Mar.). 1 In PI. XV. Fig 3 an 

 inflorescence cast is shown, of which the surface is covered by 

 a fine and well-marked reticulation; in the upper portion of the 

 cavity this reticulum has the form represented in Fig. 5, a fairly 

 regular network formed by thin plates projecting from the surface, 

 and some of the meshes are partially filled by round or oval 

 bodies suggesting very small seeds ; the meshes thus filled are 

 less angular than those without seed-like bodies. In Fig. 4 is 

 shown a wax cast of the inflorescence cavity of Fig. 3, and in 

 Fig. 6 the small dot-like depressions on the surface of the 

 cast correspond to the small bodies in the meshes of Fig. 5. 

 Towards the base of Fig. 4, the reticulum is rather larger, and 

 there are no dots in the more basal portion, owing to the absence 

 of any " seeds" in this part of the inflorescence (Fig. 7). In the 

 middle of one side of this reticulately marked cavity there is a 

 narrow longitudinal ridge, probably representing a median groove 

 in the inflorescence. The portion of inflorescence figured in PI. X. 

 Fig. 4, should be compared with the present specimen. Further 

 reference is made to this stem in the description of the detached 

 specimens referred to a new species, Bennettites Carrutltersi. Cf. 

 PI. X. Figs. 1 and 4, and Saporta's figures of Williamsonia gigas, 

 Carr., in the Pal. Franc,., vol. iv. pi. xiii. fig. 2, and pi. xiv. 

 figs. 1 and 2. Ecclesbourne. Ru/ord Coll. 



V. 2896. Imperfectly preserved stem, 26 cm. in length, and 

 20 cm. in broadest part ; leaf-stalks and ramenta shown, but no 

 inflorescence. Becldes Coll. 



V. 2816. Smaller specimen ; no actual stem surface visible. 

 The woolly ramenta suggest a connection with V. 2132 and 

 B. Saxbyanus (Brown). Ecclesbourne. Rufford Coll. 



Lignier (1), p. 25. 



