464 PALAEONTOLOGY OF ILLINOIS. 



ORGANS OF UNCERTAIN AFFINITY, 



GENUS PAL^EOXYRIS, Brgt. 



Ann. Sc. Nat, xv., p. 456. 



SPINDLE-SHAPED strobiles, covered with closely imbricated 

 rhomboidal scales, disposed in spiral order, the inferior ones 

 passing to an angular pedicel, the upper ones lengthened into 

 linear appendages. 



This description is copied from Unger's genera, and though inappropriate 

 for the classification of the species referred to it, this genus is preserved, with 

 its diagnosis, for the good reason that, as will be seen hereafter, the true nature 

 of these organs is unknown. 



PAL^EOXYRIS PRENDELI, Sp. nov. 



PL xxvii, fig 10 and 12. ._ 



A SPINDLE or bottle-shaped body, appearing like a flattened 

 small bladder, enlarged in the middle, tapering into a long 

 neck, more abruptly rounded and narrowed downwards into 

 an obtuse point, surrounded by a double line of thin but deep 

 filaments or strise, scarcely half a line distant, often close to 

 each other, ascending in spiral form from the basilar point, at 

 first in an obtuse angle with the borders, but elongating up- 

 wards and ascending into the neck where they become nearly 

 parallel to its sides. The surface of this capsular body is 

 formed of a thin pellicle, and by its compression, the spiral 

 lines of both sides are marked upon it, thus forming, by their 

 crossings, a trellis of more or less enlarged rhomboidal divi- 

 sions. In ascending into the neck, the spiral lines approach 



