12 FLORA OF LOWER COAL MEASURES OF MISSOURL 



Cceloptychium agaricoides Groldf., but the smooth surface and continuous axis 

 in Conosticlms are regarded by him as ^prohibiting any such association. In 

 the last publication to which reference is made above, Lesquereux appears 

 to have dismissed all doubt as to their vegetable nature, and we find that 

 the plants of this group are "distantly" related to the living AcetabidaricB. 

 The scanty material under my observation enables me to tlirow no light on 

 this interesting problem. It may be remarked, however, that the super- 

 ficial aspect of the fossils is somewhat suggestive of sponges. The types of 

 the two following species were obtained from Vernon County, Missouri. 



CONOSTICHUS Beoadheadi Lx. 

 PI. II, Figs. 1-5. 



1S79. Conosticlms Broadheadi Lesquereux, Coal Flora, Atlas, p. 1, pi. B, ligs. 1, 2; 

 text, vol. 1 (1880), p. 15. 



Stipe short, cylindi-ical, transverse]}^ ribbed; frond semiglobular, cup- 

 shaped, concave inside, distinctly tricostate, and deeply wrinkled lengthwise 

 on the outside; substance thick. 



The figures 1 and 2 in pi. b of the Coal Flora, from which the above 

 description is taken, represent views of the same specimen, which is now 

 No. 250 of the Lacoe collection in the United States National Museum. 

 So carefully are the illustrations made that there is little to be brought out 

 by the photographic process. The strongly marked triradiate structure 

 with the three main equidistant ridges extending from the mammillate base 

 to the periphery of the cup is a somewhat conspicuous feature, as has been 

 stated by Professor Lesquereux. But in other specimens the ribs are nearly 

 equally prominent on all sides, and are provided with or interlarded with 

 undulate rugose branchlets, suggesting delicate and graceful sculpture on 

 the outer surface of the cup. One of these examples, from Arkansas, is 

 shown in PI. II, Fig. 4. 



The type of fossil known as Conosticlms Broadheadi appears to have 

 been quite widely distributed in the Carboniferous, where its general occur- 

 rence in the Lower Coal Measures seems to bespeak for it a stratigrapliic 

 value, though its more exact range is not known to me. 



Locality. — Near the base of the Coal Measures, about halfway between 

 Nevada and Fort Scott, Vemon County, Missouri. Nos. 250, 251, Lacoe 



