152 BENNETTITES. 



figs. 3-6 l is described as the male inflorescence, and another form, 

 of which several figures are given in the PaUontologie Frangaise, 

 is regarded as the female inflorescence. Like Williamson, Saporta 

 sees in the fibrous layer at the base of the common form of 

 Williamsonia an antheriferous tissue ; the pyriform central axis 

 he describes as expanding distally into a large structure like that 

 figured by the English writer as the carpellary disk ; this 

 terminal expansion appears to have been readily separated by 

 a natural surface of disarticulation from the rest of the axis. 

 In the whole inflorescence, according to Saporta and Marion, 

 we have a male involucre surrounding a conical axis with its 

 base enclosed in a circular zone marked by radiating striae ; the 

 external edge of this zone being occupied by a number of small 

 compartments of an irregular hexagonal form, which seem to 

 correspond to pollen-sacs. The basal zone represents the sterile 

 and persistent portion of an androphore, which, when complete, 

 covered the whole of the conical receptacle with a layer of 

 staminal appendages. In the female inflorescence the bracts are 

 somewhat shorter ; the centre was occupied by a more or less 

 globular axis, having its surface marked out into a number 

 of compartments arranged in the form of facettes grouped in 

 rosettes ; the general appearance of the whole structure being 

 very similar to that presented by Buckland's Podocarya. The 

 ovules were situated in subcortical cavities, which communicated 

 with the surface by small openings ; the latter appearing as the 

 central points of groups of comparatively small meshes of the 

 superficial reticulum. In 1869 Moriere described a petrified 

 fruit from the Oxfordian beds of Vaches-Noires (Calvador), 3 and 

 this specimen is regarded by Saporta and Marion as throwing 

 considerable light on the nature of Williamsonia. The recent 

 examination of this specimen by Lignier 3 has already been 

 alluded to ; his work has afforded us very important data with 

 regard to the connection between Bennettites and Williamsonia. 



Saporta draws attention to a close resemblance between the 

 terminal infundibuliform expansion of Williamsonia and the fossil 



1 "Williamson (3). 



2 Moriere, pi. ii. fig. 4. 



3 Lignier (1). 



