498 



CYCADOPHYTA 



[CH. 



(preferable in its morphological implication), though useful in the 

 case of detached seeds of undoubted Cycadean affinity, can seldom 

 be employed without an admission that they may imply a relation- 

 ship that cannot be absolutely established. In the great majority 

 of cases the better plan is to be content with the more non-com- 

 mittal term Carpolithus with the addition of a family-name 

 when there are reasonably good grounds for a more definite 

 reference. No useful purpose would be served by attempting 

 a complete survey of the numerous casts and impressions of 

 supposed Cycadean seeds recorded in palaeobotanical literature, 

 but a few types are briefly described as examples of specimens 

 with fairly well defined characters, which are in all probability 

 Cycadean. 



Carpolithus conicus (Cycadales?) Lindley and Button. 



The original specimen figured by Lindley and Hutton 1 from 

 the Coralline Oolite of Malton, Yorkshire, as Carpolithes conica 



FIG. 585. Carpolithus conicus. 

 From a specimen in the 

 Malton Museum ; nat. size. 



FIG. 584. Carpolithus conicus. The type- 

 specimens in the Manchester Museum; 

 nat. size, (a, No. 361 ; b, c, No. 360.) 



and now in the Manchester Museum, is represented in fig. 584. 

 A second 'species,' Carpolithus BucJclandi Lind. and Hutt. ex 



1 Lindley and Hutton (36) A. PL 189. See also Seward (04) B. p. 124. 



