TETJNCI. 171 



exceedingly doubtful fossils which cannot be relied upon as 

 satisfactory records ; many of the supposed oldest monocotyledonous 

 plants have been shown to be either inorganic fossils, or to belong 

 to some other class of plants. These Maidstone Lower Greensand 

 stems, and the smaller Wealden examples of what appear to be 

 the same form of plant, do not afford any trustworthy evidence 

 of the existence of angiospermous plants at this horizon. The 

 resemblance to Dracana or Pandanus does not bear the test of 

 any careful comparison with the recent genera ; in the fossils we 

 have none of the regular transversely elongated leaf-scars so 

 characteristic of these living monocotyledons. The method of 

 branching and the general surface characters are much more in 

 harmony with certain species of the genus Zamia. It may perhaps 

 be advisable to institute a new generic name for this form of 

 fossil stem, but for the present we are chiefly concerned with the 

 small Wealden examples, and need not introduce any new term. 



V. 3162. PI. XII. Fig. 5. 



This specimen is probably the impression of a stem at a point 

 where branching is taking place ; the surface is deeply and 

 irregularly wrinkled, and studded with round or oval pro- 

 minences showing no regularity of disposition. On the surface 

 of the specimen there is a small amount of carbonaceous matter, 

 which probably represents altered cortical tissue. A comparison 

 of this specimen with Dracana, and with Zamia Loddigesii or 

 Z. Skinneri, shows a much more striking resemblance to the latter 

 genus. In these forms of Zamia, as in the fossil stems, there 

 is not the characteristic armour of petiole bases, but a surface 

 marked by transverse and irregular wrinklings, with here and 

 there small knob-like protuberances. There is some slight 

 resemblance to Saporta's Changarniera inquirenda l ; but this is 

 described as a leaf, and not a stem structure. Very similar to 

 some of the Maidstone specimens. Ecclesbourne. RuffurA Coll. 



V. 2350. PI. XII. Fig. 4. 



A portion of the specimen shown in the figure. The surface 

 is slightly convex, suggesting a small segment of a large stem. 

 The surface markings resemble those of V. 3162, but in this 



1 Saporta, Pal. Fran9- vol. iv. p. 246, pi. cclxx. fig. 2, etc. 



