OP LOWER GKEEXSAXD PLANTS. 131 



bract scales separate and both well developed ; the seeds, two on 

 each ovuliferous scale, are about ram. long by 3 mm. broad. 

 The cone, however, is immature. 



HORIZON. Kentish Hag, Lower Greensand. 



LOCALITY. Iguanodon Quarry, near Maidstone. 



TYPE. 31)107; and elides 39107 a-39107 d, cut in 1912; 

 British Museum (Nat. Hist.). 



FINDER. W. H. Bensted, Esq., about 1834. 



DESCRIPTION. The small oval cone is seen split open and 

 illustrated in natural size, PI. X, fig. 1. The outer surface of 

 the cone is much worn and a little broken, but the contours of 

 a few of the scales can clearly be seen, and they overlap in the 

 same way as those of a Cedrus or Abies cone, the ends of the 

 scales apparently being thiu. The exposed portion of the scale 

 is twice as long tangentially as it is vertically. Man tell in his 

 original description states that " one seed is imbedded within 

 the base of each scale," but the sections recently cut show some 

 scales in an oblique tangential direction and demonstrate that 

 two seeds were borne on each ovuliferous scale. 



The cone was unripe, as is shown by the internal tissues of 

 the seeds, which were not fully developed, and by the very 

 slight sclerification of the massive axis. The measurements 

 given in the diagnosis, therefore, are not of true specific value, 

 save for other cones in a like state of unripeness. The "remains 

 of the embryo," which Mantell mentions as being seen in some 

 seeds, are really the undeveloped endosperm, which, with the 

 very soft broken-down central zone and broad outer zones of 

 cells, does to some extent resemble an embryo with split 

 cotyledons when seen without proper microscopic sections. 

 lleference should be made to H. XI, tig. 1, end., which shows 

 a seed cut across, with testa and partly developed endosperm, 

 in which a small central area has broken down owing to the 

 incomplete wall-formation at the time of petrifaction. 



Carruthers (1866 u, p. 541) considered this cone to be very 

 like that of a modern Cedar, but he had only the external 

 poorly preserved features on which to base his judgment. The 

 structures shown in the sections are more suggestive of the 

 genus Abies. 



The rt.m is remarkably massive for the size of the cone, 

 measuring 10 12 mm. in diameter (PL XI, fig. 2, a.). This is 



K2 



