LYCOPODITES. 69 



1850. Lycopodites falcatus, linger, Gen. spec, plant, foss. p. 274. 



1854. Lycopodites falcat us, Morris, Brit. Foss. p. 12. 



18-56. Lycopodites fakatus, Zigno, Flor. foss. Oolit. vol. i. p. 213. 



1864. Lycopodites falcat us, Leckenby, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol. xx. p. 77. 



1870. Lycopodiiiiiifalcatiim, Schimper, Trait, pal. veg. vol. ii. p. 9. 



1875. Lycopodites fakatus, Phillips, Geol. Yorks. p. 198, lign. 6. 



1892. Lycopodites fakatns, Fox-Strangways, Tab. Foss. p. 127. 



Type-specimen. British ^Museum, Xo. 39,314. 



Stem slender, branched in an apparently dichotomous manner, 

 bearing leaves disposed in two rows, and fairly closely arranged, 

 but not contiguous. Leaves thin, entire, broadly falcate, with an 

 acute apex pointing upwards or slightly inclined towards the axis 

 of the branch. Sporophylls unknown. 



Linclley & Hutton 1 speak of the plant, which they describe as 

 Lycopodites falcatus, as no doubt identical with a specimen figured 

 by Young & Bird, 2 bearing "small round crowded leaves"; but 

 it is not improbable that the drawing given by the latter authors 

 represents a piece of the conifer BracJiyplnjlhim mamillarc, Brongn. 



There is little doubt that Lycopodites falcatm should be regarded 

 as a Lycopodinous plant more nearly allied to the genus Selaginella 

 than to Lycopodium. At the end of the diagnosis of the species 

 given by Phillips, 3 it is stated that he detected "marks of stipulae " 

 on one of the specimens ; these probably represent imperfectly 

 preserved leaves on the upper surface of the stem, differing in their 

 smaller size from the two-ranked leaves, which are distichously 

 disposed. In the type-specimen of Lindley & Hutton (39,314) 

 there are in places faint suggestions of smaller leaves, but the 

 preservation is not sufficiently good to render this point certain. 

 The probability is that this species, as Schcnk 4 suggests, agrees 

 more closely with the recent genus Selaginella than with 

 Lycopodium. Solms - Laubach, in speaking of fossil Lycopods, 

 goes so far as to say that "all Lycopodites with distichous 

 leaves may be reckoned without hesitation among heterophyllous 

 forms," 5 that is, among plants of the type of Selaginella. The 



1 Lindley & Hutton (33), pi. Ixi. 



2 Young & Bird (22), pi. ii. fig. 7. 

 8 Phillips (75), p. 198. 



Schenk (88), p. 57. 



5 Solms-Laubach (91), p. 187. 



