MESOZOIO PLANTS OF NORTH CAROLINA. 119 



resents the base of the cone as it would appear when mashed flat in the 

 direction of its longer axis. Fig. 4 a represents two scales of the cone now 

 in question. 



Lepacyclotes circularis. 

 Plate XLIX, Fig. 8. 

 Emmons's "Am. Geol.," p. 130, plate 3, fig. 4. 



"Disk or circle formed of scales as in the preceding, but they appear to radiate 

 from its center. In this specimen a dark-colored flattish or circular body is connected 

 to the central termination of the scales, which may have been the fruit or seed. Por- 

 tions broke from it when detached from the rock, leaving the overlying body as repre- 

 sented in the figure. Another species occurs in the sandstones above, associated 

 with Pterophyllums. There are certain facts connected with this plant which are not 

 rationally explained on the natural supposition that they are analogous to the cones 

 of pines, for the same species of disks with their scales occur which are less than half 

 an inch in diameter, and in another instance the disk is formed of three concentric 

 tiers of scales, the center one similar to the figure given above, but the outer one bor- 

 dering it, formed of shorter scales. It is 7 inches in diameter, and another formed of 

 a single row of scales is 5 inches in the longest diameter. They are found at Elling- 

 ton's in the soft blue slate above the conglomerate. The detached scales are very 

 numerous. Only one specimen has been obtained at Lockville." 



I do not see any reason in the above account to deny the coniferous 

 character of these bodies, but. rather find reasons for assuming that they 

 are cones. There may be several species, but the L. circularis is clearly 

 the same with L: ellipticus, the latter being slightly distorted by pressure. 

 The plant may be called Araucarites Carolinensis. 



Undetermined plant. 



Plate LII, Fig. 2. 

 Emmons's "Am. Geol.," p. 131, fig. 99. 



Fig. 99 of the "American Geology" depicts a singular form, of which 

 Emmons says: 



" It is the most common plant of the blue shale at Lockville. The stem is flat- 

 tened, but retains its parallel and obscure striae, which are continued upon the leaves. 

 The length of the leaf is remarkable, and, considering that they do not diminish in 

 breadth along the space through which they have been uncovered, they must be from 

 12 to 18 inches long. Their breadth varies from one to five lines, and they never taper. 

 Five leaves in one instance proceed from the stem as represented in the figure. The 

 stem is nearly a line thick, and hence had more substance than the Equisetaceae or 

 Calamites." 



I have, in the shales of the Clover Hill deposits, often seen obscure 

 branching forms not unlike the plant depicted here. They were evidently 



