52 PAL^ONTOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



in describing the forms of Lcpidostrobus, says — " The fRiit is a 

 cone composed of imbricated scales arranged spirally on the axis 

 like the true leaves, and bearing the sjDorangia on their hori- 

 zontal pedicels. Three different forms of fruit belong to this 

 genus, or it should perhaps rather be called group of plants. 

 The first of these is the cone named by Robert Brown Triplo- 

 sporites (Figs. 42, 43), and described by him from an exquisitely 

 preserved specimen of an upper portion, in which the parts are 

 exhibited as clearly in the petrified condition as if they belonged 

 to a fresh and living plant. The large sporangia have a double 

 wall, the outer composed of a compact layer of oblong cells 

 placed endwise, or with the long diameter i:)erpendicular to 

 the surface ; the inner is a delicate cellular membrane. The 

 sporangium is filled with a great number of very small spores, 

 each composed of three roundish bodies or sporules. Recently 

 Bronguiart and Schimper have described a complete specimen 

 of this fruit, in which the minute triple spores are confined 

 to the sporangia of the upper and middle part of the cone, 

 but the lower portion, which was wanting in Brown's speci- 

 men, bears sporangia filled with simple spherical spores ten 

 or twelve times larger than the others (woodcut 44, 9). 



" The structure of another form of cone (Lepidostrobus) 

 has been expounded by Dr. Hooker. The arrangement of 

 the different parts comprising it is precisely similar to what 

 occurs in Triplosporites ; but the sporangia are filled with the 

 minute triple spores throughout the whole cone (woodcut 44, 

 6 and 8). 



'' The third form of cone, described by me under the name 

 Flemingites, differs from the other two in having a large num- 

 ber of small sporangia supported on the surface of each 



Jones, who has kindly placed them at my disposal. They were used 

 to illustrate Mr. Carruthers' remarks on the Cryptogamic forests of 

 the Coal period, published in the Journal of the Royal Institution of 

 Great Britain, April 16, 18G9. Mr. Carruthers' observations are 

 given in the text. 



