WITHAMIA. 177 



In answer to my question as to the probability of such a fern- 

 affinity, Mr. Baker, of the Kew Herbarium, wrote as follows : 

 "I should not think this very curious fossil is likely to be a 

 fern. Phyllocladus seems far more likely. But, of course, without 

 flower and fruit there can be no certainty. The climbing stem 

 and hooked prickles recall Calamus." I had suggested the 

 possibility of the Wealden plant being compared with the New 

 Zealand conifer, Phyllocladus* in the recent species of which we 

 have small scaly leaves subtending flattened cuneiform branches 

 (phylloclacles). If the leaves were modified into climbing-hooks, 

 we should have a fairly close approximation to Withamia, but 

 the evidence at hand does not allow of any great weight being 

 attached to such a comparison. In a palm such as Calamus or 

 Desmoncus we find somewhat analogous spines, but in these 

 monocotyledonous plants, there is not the same relation as regards 

 position on the axis between hooks and leaf segments as in 

 Withamia. For the present, then, I propose to leave the position 

 of Withamia an open question, in view of the difficulty of deciding 

 the morphological value of the stout recurved spines and leaf-like 

 appendages, and the insufficient evidence afforded by incomplete 

 vegetative structures. 



V. 2134. PI. II. Fig. 2. 



Length of axis 12'2 cm., about 1 cm. broad, striated longi- 

 tudinally. In the axil of each stout recurved hook there occurs 

 a portion of a leaf -like appendage ; these leaves or phylloclades 

 are imperfectly preserved, but enough is seen to demonstrate the 

 flabellate venation, and to suggest a form similar to that of 

 the detached "leaf" represented in H. II. Fig. 1 (V. 2195). 

 The markings shown on the surface of the uppermost left-hand 

 spine are merely cracks, and not the remains of any original 

 structure ; the two highest spines are attached to the axis in 

 a manner indicative of an alternate arrangement, the middle pair 

 are opposite, and the lowest subopposite. Ecclesbourne. 



Rufford Coll 



V. 2915. PL II. Fig. 1. 



This well-preserved Cyclopteris-Yike leaf appears to have been 



1 Species occur in New Zealand, Tasmania, and Borneo. 



K 



