FOSSIL PLANTS. 439 



GENUS LEPIDOPHLOIOS, Sternb. 



111. Geol. Rep., vol. ii, p. 457. 



LEPIDOPHLOIOS? AURICULATUM, Sp. nov. 



PI. XXX, fig 1. 



STEM or cone covered with large thick rhomboidal imbricated 

 scales, broader than long, rounded at the sides, marked at the 

 top by enlarged rhomboidal cicatrices and three obscure vascu- 

 lar points. 



The specimen copied in our figure looks like a part of a large flattened cone 

 whose broad thick rhomboidal scales are imbricated like those of a strobile of 

 pine, and in the same order. According to Prof. Goldenberg, specimens of this 

 kind should merely represont the surface part of stems (Lepidophloios) , whose 

 leaves are attached at the base of the scales which cover them. If this is 

 the case, it is doubtful, indeed, whether our plant is referable to this genus, 

 notwithstanding the similarity of the scales to those of some species of Euro- 

 pean Z<epidophloios, or whether it should be considered as a cone or Lepidos- 

 trobus. It is evident that the scales, which are often found isolated and vari- 

 ously grouped on the shales, were free to their base ; that in their union, as in 

 the specimen which is figured Here, they rather represent the form of a strobile 

 than that of a stem, and that also some of these scales appear connected with 

 Lepidopliyllum auriculatum, Lesqx., though the mode of connection is not dis- 

 tinct. On the other side these scales are marked at the top by three vascular 

 points like (he scales of Lepidophloios, and also have in the middle the small 

 scar scarcely perceptible with the naked eye, which Mr. Goldenberg considers 

 as the scar of a spine, and which also is a character of the genus. They are, 

 moreover, remarkably similar in form to those of JJepidophloios laricinus, 

 Sternb., as figured by Goldenberg in his Flor. Sarr., pi. 16, fig. 1. Though 

 this may be its true generic relation, this species differs from the European one 

 by the scales, which in ours are proportionally broader and shorter, and by the 

 small medial scar which is triangular and not round. 



Found in the shales of the coal of St. Johns. 



