OF LOWER GREEXSANI) PLANTS. 47 



V. 13237 h. A section with several obliquely cut seeds, cut 

 nearly horizontal to cone-axis. In the centre, a 

 seed-stalk shows beautifully the placing of the inter- 

 seminal scales round it. Tissues of the bract-scales 

 are also very well preserved. 



Bennettites All chin i, sp. nov. 

 [Plate I ; text-fig. 13.] 



As no sections of the specimen have been cut, and as the 

 material appears to be too imperfectly petrified for anatomical 

 study, a diagnosis of the external characters alone can be 

 given. 



Diagnosis. Trunk 26+ ? cm. high, 21 x 14 cm. in diameter 

 (the elliptical compression petrifact?). Leaf-bases rhomboidal, 

 very small, 1*5x1 up to 2x1*5 cm., tangentially extended. 

 Pith apparently 12x4*5 cm. (woody axis too decayed for de- 

 scription). Leaf-bases much less extensive than in B. Gib- 

 sonianus, apparently only up to 3 cm. in thickness in transverse 

 section of the trunk. 



Several cones embedded between leaf-bases, about 1*5-2 cm. 

 in transverse section. 



HORIZON. Hythe or Folkestone beds, Lower Greensand. 



LOCALITY. Near Ighthara, Kent. 



TYPE. A large specimen in the Maidstone Museum (a 

 plaster cast in the Brit. Mus. Nat. Hist., Geol. Dept. V. 13201). 



DESCRIPTION. This handsome specimen from the Kentish 

 Lower Greensand seems to be the only example of its kind. 

 The petrifaction of the inner tissues would probably be incom- 

 plete, judging from the external texture of the fossil, and as it 

 is a unique specimen no sections were attempted. It shows 

 well, however, the leading characters of the genus Bennettites, 

 both in the pith-cast at the top of the specimen, the closely 

 packed persistent leaf-bases, and the numerous small cones 

 embedded closely among the leaf-bases. The hunk was evi- 

 dently longer in life than at present (26 cm.), for its broken 

 upper end shows no sign of a natural termination. 



The pith is preserved only as an irregular central cast (see 

 the upper end of the specimen in PI. I). The diameter of the 

 pith is 12 x 4*5 cm., and it is very much decayed and weathered. 



