486 REPORT—1883. 
Brongniart and M. Renault has thrown a flood of light upon some of these objects, 
which now prove to be primeval types of Cycadean vegetation. 
Mr. Peach’s discovery of a specimen demonstrating that the Antholithes Pit- 
came? of Lindley and Hutton was not only, as these authors anticipated, ‘ the 
inflorescence of some plant,’ but that its seeds were the well-known Cardiocarpons, 
was the first link in an important chain of new evidence. Then followed the rich 
discoveries at St. Etienne, where a profusion of seeds, displaying wonderfully their 
internal organisation, was brought to light by the energy of M. Grand-Eury, which 
seeds M. Brongniart soon pronounced to be Cycadean. At the same time I was 
obtaining many similar seeds from Oldham and Burntisland, in which also the 
minute organisation was preserved. Dawson, Newberry, and Lesquereux have also 
shown that many species of similar seeds, though retaining no traces of internal 
structure, occur in the coal-measures of North America. 
Equally important was the further discovery, by M. Grand-Eury, that the 
Antholithes, with their Cardiocarpoid seeds, were but one form of the monoclinous 
catkin-like inflorescences of the Noeggerathie, now better known by Unger’s name 
of Cordaites. These investigations suggest some important conclusions:—lst. The 
vast number and variety of these Cycadean seeds, as well as the enormous size of 
some of them, is remarkable, showing the existence of an abundant and important 
Carboniferous vegetation, of most of which no trace has yet been discovered other 
than these isolated seeds. 2nd. Most of the seeds exhibit the morphological pecu- 
liarity of having a large cavity (the “cavité pollinique’ of Brongniart) between 
the upper end of the nucelle and its investing episperm, and immediately below the 
micropile of the seed. That this cavity was destined to have the pollen grains drawn 
into it, and be thus brought into direct connection with the apex of the nucelle, is 
shown by the various examples in which such grains are still found in that cavity.* 
3rd. M. Grand-Eury has shown that some of his forms of Cordaites possessed the 
discoid or Sternbergian pith which I had previously found in Dadowxylon; and, 
lastly, these Cordaites prove that a diclinous form of vegetation existed at this 
early period in the history of the flowering plants, but whether in a monececious 
or a dicecious form we have as yet no means of determining, Their reproductive 
structures differ widely from the true cones borne by most Cycads at the present 
day. 
Conifers—It has long been remarked that few real cones of Conifers have 
hitherto been found in the Carboniferous rocks, and I doubt if any such have yet 
been met with. Large quantities of the woody stems now known as Dadoaylons 
have been found both in Europe and America. These stems present a true coni- 
ferous structure both in the pith, medullary sheath wood, and bark. The wood 
presents one very peculiar feature. Its, foliar bundles, though in most other 
respects exactly like those of ordinary Conifers, are given off, not singly, but in 
pairs.t I have only found this arrangement of double foliar bundles in the Chinese 
Gingko (Salisburia adiantifolia).® This fact is not unimportant when connected 
with another one. Sir Joseph Hooker long ago expressed his opinion that the 
well-known Tyigonocarpons * of the coal measures were the seeds of a Conifer allied 
to this Salisburia. The abundance of the fragments of Dadoxylon, combined with the 
readiness with which cones and seeds are preserved in a fossil state, make it pro- 
bable that the fruits belonging to these woody stems would be so preserved. But 
of cones we find no trace, and, as we discover no other plant in the Carboniferous 
strata to which the Trigonocarpons could with any probability have belonged, these 
facts afford grounds for associating them with the Dadoaylons, These combined 
reasons, viz. the structure of the stems with their characteristic foliar bundles, and 
the Gingko-like character of the seeds, suggest the probability that these Dadovylons, 
’ Fossil Flora, p. 82. 
2 Memoir viii. Pl. ii. figs. 70 and 72. Brongniart, Recherches sur les Graines 
Fossiles Silicifiées, Pl. xvi. figs. 1, 2; Pl. xx. fig. 2. 
$ Dr. Dawson finds the discoid pith in one of the living Canadian Conifers. 
4 Memoir viii. Pl. lviii. fig. 48, and Pl. ix. figs. 44-46. 
5 Memoir xii. Pl. xxxiii. figs. 28, 29. 
§ Memoir viii. figs. 94-115. 
