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



palaeozoic vegetation. The diagnosis may provisionally ruu as 

 follows : 



Cheirostrobus, gen nov. 



Cone consisting 9f a cylindrical axis, bearing numerous compound 

 sporophylls, arranged in crowded many-membered verticils. 



Sporophylls of successive verticils superposed. 



Each sporophyll divided, nearly to its base, into an inferior and a 

 superior lobe; lobes palmately subdivided into long segments, of 

 which some (probably the inferior) are sterile, and others (probably 

 the superior) fertile, each segment consisting of an elongated stalk 

 bearing a terminal lamina. 



Lammas of sterile segments foliaceous ; those of fertile segments 

 (or sporangiophores) peltate. 



Sporangia large, attached by their ends remote from the axis, to 

 the peltate laminae of the sporangiophores. 



Sporangia on each sporangiophore, usually four. 



Spores very numerous in each sporangium. 



Wood of axis polyarch. 



C. Pettycurensis, sp. nov. 



Cone, 34 cm. in diameter, seated on a distinct peduncle. Sporo- 

 phylls, twelve in each verticil. 



Each sporophyll usually sexpartite, three segments belonging to 

 the inferior, and three to the superior, lobe. 



Sporangia densely crowded. 



Spores about 0'065 ram. in diameter. 



Horizon: Calciferous Sandstone Series. 



Locality : Pettycur, near Burntisland, Scotland. Found by Mr. 

 James Bennie, of Edinburgh. 



Both generic and specific characters are manifestly subject to alter- 

 ation, if other similar fossils should be discovered. In the mean time 

 the above diagnoses are given, in order to facilitate identification. 



Affinities. 



Any full discussion of affinities must be reserved for the detailed 

 memoir, which I hope to lay before the Royal Society in a short time. 

 At present only a few suggestions will be offered 



The idea of a near relationship to Lepidostrobus so specious at 

 firsb sight is negatived by ascurate investigation. There may have 

 been a certain resemblance in external habit, as there is in the 

 naked-eye appearance of the sections, but this means nothing more 

 than that the specimen is a large cone, with crowded sporophylls 

 and radially elongated sporangia. The only real resemblance to 

 Lepidostrobus is in the polyarch strand of primary wood, but even 

 here the details, as, for example, the structure of the trachea?, do not 



