192 WILL1AHSONIA. 



Although the pinnate fronds, which were named by Lindley & 

 Hutton Cycadites pecten and C. pectinoidcs, have never been 

 found in organic union with the type of Williamaonia described 

 by Nathorst as W. Leckenbyi, 1 there can be little, if any, doubt 

 that the latter is the flower of the plant which bore the well- 

 known pinnate leaves long known by Phillips' name Pterophyllum 

 pecten. The constant association of the small species of Wittiamsonia 

 with these fronds is in itself a strong argument for their specific 

 identity. The extremely variable form of the fronds is at once 

 apparent if we examine carefully the numerous examples of 

 this species in the various British and Continental collections. 

 In addition to the specimens in the British Museum illustrating 

 the frequent association of various forms of Wittiamsonia pecten on 

 one piece of shale, equally instructive examples may be seen in 

 the Museums of Scarborough, York, and Manchester. One slab 

 of rock in the Scarborough Museum shows about thirty fronds 

 in which there is considerable variation in the breadth of the 

 pinnae. Specimens in the Manchester Museum also demonstrate 

 the variability of the species : one frond 24 cm. in length bears 

 pinnse with bluntly rounded bases and the upper basal edge 

 distinctly lobed (auriculate) (cf. V. 3516, etc.), and in close 

 association with this occur other examples in which the pinna? 

 are smaller and without a basal lobe. The fossils originally 

 named by Brongniart Zamia Goldicei, and afterwards figured by 

 Saporta as Otozamites Goldicsi,* are, I have no doubt, specifically 

 identical with Wittiamsonia pecten ; but the latter name is very 

 much better known, and the form of frond to which the 

 designation pecten was first applied represents the more typical 

 form. A Liassic Otozamites described by Lignier from Normandy 

 as 0. Apperti 3 may also be compared with Wittiamsonia pecten ; 

 the pinnae are slightly lobed at the base, and, as Lignier points 

 out, they resemble Otozamites Goldicei. 



An important question is the aifinity of several Cycadean fronds 

 from Indian beds, which Feistmantel included in the genus 

 Ptilophyllum, proposed by Morris in 1840, with the English fronds 

 usually referred to Pterophyllum, and now spoken of as Wittiamsonia 



1 Nathorst (80 2 ). 



2 Saporta (75), pi. xx. fig. 1. 



3 Lignier (95), p. 22. 



