of Fossil Cone from the Calciferous Sandstone. 4J9 



phylls, eauli of which bears a number of sporangia. Ifc became 

 evident that this cone must be placed in a new genus, and the con- 

 clusion arrived at from the study of the peduncle was thus confirmed. 



Mr. Kidston most generously handed over his sections to me for 

 examination and description, and also obtained for me from the 

 owner the remains of the original block, from which I have had a 

 number of additional sections prepared. 



Only a single specimen of the cone is at present known. Before 

 cutting sections, the piece, which includes the base but not the apex 

 of the sfcrobilus, was about 2 inches long. It was found at Pettycur, 

 near Burntisland, in 1883, by Mr, James Benuie of Edinburgh. The 

 specimen is calcified, and its preservation is remarkably perfect, so 

 that the whole structure is well shown, though the complexity of its 

 organisation renders the interpretation in some respects difficult. 



The cone in its present somewhat flattened condition measures 

 about 5 cm. by 2'3 cm. in diameter. The diameter in its natural state 

 would have been at least 3'5 cm. That of the axis is about 7 mm., 

 exactly the same as that of Williamson's peduncle. Thus the extreme 

 length of the sporophylls, which have on the whole an approxi- 

 mately horizontal course, is about l - 4 cm. 



The sporophylls are arranged in somewhat crowded verticils, 

 fourteen of which were counted in a length of an inch, 2'5 cm. There 

 are twelve leaves in each whorl, and the members of successive 

 whorls are accurately superposed, a fact which is shown with the 

 greatest clearness in tangential sections of the cone. This is evi- 

 dently a point of great significance in considering the affinities of the 

 fossil. 



The sporophylls themselves have a remarkably complex form. Each 

 sporophyll at its insertion on the axis, consists of a short basal 

 portion or phyllopodium ; the bases of the sporophylls belonging to 

 the same verticil are coherent. The sporophyll branches immediately 

 above its base, dividing into a superior and an inferior lobe, which lie 

 directly one above the other in the same radial plane. Almost at the 

 same point, each of the lobes subdivides in a palmate manner into 

 three segments, which assume a horizontal course, whereas the com- 

 mon phyllopodium has an upward inclination. It is probable that 

 sometimes, especially at the base of the cone, there may be two 

 instead of three segments to each lobe. As a rule, however, each 

 sporophyll consists of six segments, of which three belong to the 

 superior (ventral or posterior) and three to the inferior (dorsal or 

 anterior) lobe. 



The segments are of two kinds sterile and fertile. Both alike 

 consist of a long, straight, slender pedicel, running out horizontally, 

 and terminating at the distal end in a thick laminar expansion. The 

 sterile segments are the longer, and in each the lamina bears an 



