XXXVIII] ANDROSTROBUS 505 



as probably a male flower of Bucklandia is almost certainly an 

 Araucarian cone. A small cone from the Lower Miocene of 

 Armissan (Aude) named by Schimper Zamiostrobus Saportana 

 and figured by Saporta and Marion 1 may, as Solms-Laubach says, 

 be Cycadean, but we have no information with regard to the 

 internal structure or as to the presence or position of the seeds. 



Androstrobus. Schimper. 



Schimper 2 instituted this genus for 'amenta, cycadeacea 

 antherifera, cylindrica, e squamis imbricatis, latere postico 

 antheras sessiles ferentibus efformata.' It may conveniently 

 be applied to fossils which resemble the male cones of recent 

 Cycads sufficiently to justify the use of a name implying relation- 

 ship. As so defined, Androstrobus is used in a more restricted 

 sense than the word suggests, just as Masculostrobus 3 has been 

 employed for fossils that are believed to be the corresponding 

 organs of Conifers. Among the few species assigned to Schimper's 

 genus reference may be made to A. Balduini Sap., originally 

 named by Schimper A. zamioides, from the Upper Bathonian of 

 Etrochy, and A Guerangeri (Brongn.), another French type 4 . 

 Heer's species A. sibirica 5 of Jurassic age is represented by a 

 slender axis bearing numerous appendages which in surface- 

 view have the form of polygonal discs : there are no indications 

 of microsporangia and the evidence of Cycadean affinity is far 

 from convincing. Nathorst's Rhaetic species A. borealis 6 is no 

 more satisfactory as a record of a Cycadean strobilus. A fossil 

 from the Lower Cretaceous of Bohemia described as Zamites 

 familiaris and regarded by Corda 7 and Carruthers 8 as a male 

 flower of a Cycad though not above suspicion may be included 

 in Androstrobus. 



Under the name Fricia nobilis Velenovsky 9 described some 

 cones from the Lower Cretaceous plant-beds of Bohemia which 



1 Saporta and Marion (85) p. 116, fig. 61, B. 



2 Schimper (72) A. p. 199. 3 See Vol. iv. 



4 Saporta (75) A. p. 209, PI. 115, figs. 1, 2. 



5 Heer (77) n. p. 47, PL iv. figs. 14, 15. 



6 Nathorst (78 2 ) B. p. 49, PL n. figs. 15, 16. 



7 Corda in Reuss (46) B. p. 86, PL XLIX. figs. 10, 11. 



8 Carruthers (67 2 ) p. 6. 



9 Velenovsky (85) B. p. 8, PL m. figs. 13, 6, 11. 



