418 Dr. D. H. Scott. On Cheirostrobus, a new Type 



As it was the examination of this fragment of stem which first },ut 

 me on to the track of the new cone, it may be well shortly to describe 

 its chief characteristics, reserving all details for a future paper. 



The specimen, which is about 7 mm. in diameter, bears the bases 

 only of somewhat crowded leaves, the arrangement of which, though 

 not quite clear, was most probably verticillate, with from nine to 

 twelve leaves in a whorl, those of successive whorls being superposed. 

 Each leaf-base consists of a superior and an inferior lobe, and each 

 lobe is palmately subdivided into two or three segments. 



The leaf-traces, which are single bundles where they leave the 

 central cylinder, subdivide in both planes on their way through the 

 cortex, to supply the lobes and segments of the leaf. 



The central cylinder is polyarch, the strand of wood having from 

 nine to twelve prominent angles, with phloem occupying the furrows 

 between them. With the exception of the spiral protoxylem-elements 

 at the angles, the tracheae have multiseriate bordered pits, thus differ- 

 ing conspicuously from the scalariform tracheae of the Lepidodendrere. 

 The interior of the stele is occupied by tracheas intermingled with 

 conjunctive parenchyma. There is a well-marked formation of 

 secondary tissues by means of a normal cambium.* 



The Strolilus. 



Mr. B. Kidston, F.Gr.S., kindly informed me that he had in his 

 possession sections of a fossil cone from Burntisland having certain 

 points in common with the Williamson specimen. On inspecting 

 these sections with Mr. Kidston I was soon convinced that this uude- 

 scribed cone really belonged to the same plant as the fragment of stem 

 in the Williamson collection, and that the latter might well be the 

 peduncle of the former. At the same time, I satisfied myself, and 

 Mr. Kidston agreed with me, that the whole organisation of his cone 

 is fundamentally different from that of any Lepidostrobus, the deci- 

 sive point being that the new cone has compound branched sporo- 



* The general structure of this axis, including the course of the bundles and the 

 subdivision of the bracts, is correctly described by Williamson, loc. cit., p. 297. -As 

 regards the latter point, he says " peripherally the bark breaks up into main or 

 primary bracts, which again subdivide, as in the transverse section, into secondary 

 ones, demonstrating that each primary bract does not merely dichotomize, but sub- 

 divides, both horizontally and vertically, into a cluster of bracts a condition corre- 

 sponding with what T have already observed in the smaller strobili described." 

 These smaller strobili are those of the Burntisland Lepidostrobus, to which, by a 

 strange coincidence, Williamson, loc. cit., p. 295, erroneously attributed the same 

 character, as regards subdivision of the bracts, which actually exists in the new cone. 

 The only explanation appears to be, that Williamson interpreted the strucbure of 

 the Lepidoatrobus in the light of that of the peduncle, which, as we shall see, really 

 belonged to a totally different fructification. 



