116 Proceedings of the Royal Physical Society. 



X. On Scottish Fossil Cycadaceous Leaves contained in the Hugh 

 Miller Collection. By J. Theodore Eichards, Esq., 

 B.Sc, Falconer Memorial Fellow of the University of 

 Edinburgh. (Communicated by Dr Traquair, F.K.S.) 



(Read 23d April 1884.) 



In a lecture " On the less known Fossil Floras of Scotland," 

 published in "The Testimony of the Eocks" (Edinb., 1857), 

 Hugh Miller has given a brief description, with accompany- 

 ing figures, of several varieties of plant-remains occurring in 

 the Jurassic strata of the north of Scotland. Among them 

 are included specimens of the foliage of Cycadacese, compar- 

 able with those which constitute so great a part and so 

 characteristic a feature of Jurassic floras elsewhere. Stems 

 belonging to this order, derived from the Scottish Oolite, 

 have had their characters described in detail by Dr Carruthers 

 in his monograph " On Fossil Cycadean Stems from the 

 Secondary Eocks of Britain " {Trans. Linn. Soc, vol. xxvi.) ; 

 but the leaves designated " Zamia " in the work above-named, 

 and now preserved in the Hugh Miller Collection in the 

 Edinburgh Museum of Science and Art, have not yet received 

 detailed description or names. The following notice forms 

 part of a general report on the systematic arrangement of 

 British fossil Cycadaceous leaves, which has just been pre- 

 sented to the University of Edinburgh, and I am indebted 

 to Dr Traquair for the opportunity of communicating to 

 this Society the result of my examination of Scottish speci- 

 mens. For three out of the five in question, which I have 

 been unable to identify with any species described elsewhere, 

 specific names and diagnoses are proposed. Two of them 

 belong to the genus Podozamites (Fr. Braun), and the other 

 to Zamites (Brong.), as these genera have been constituted in 

 Schimper's classification, and are now commonly adopted. 

 In the absence of any English work upon the subject, it may 

 be stated that in Zamites are included leaves, of which the 

 well-known Zamia gigas (L. and H.) is a typical example, 

 whose segments, alternately arranged on either side of a strong 

 rachis, are of oblong or lanceolate form, inserted towards the 



