LYGOPODIALES— LEPIDODENDRE.E— LEPIDODENDEON. 199 



without details, by Professor Lesquereux is not known to me. My identi- 

 fication, therefore, of the more recently collected material with Lepidoden- 

 dron scutatwn is not Avithout doubt, since it is based much more on the high 

 degree of agreement of the newer specimens with those two figures than 

 on the characters of the type of fig. 6. In fact, it will be seen that the 

 specimens in the later collections can hardly be of the same species as the 

 latter tj'-pe. Yet, being, far from certain that they are not specifically 

 identical with the figs. Qh and Qe in the Coal Flora, I have assumed that 

 Professor Lesquereux maj- have included two distinct plants in L. scutatum, 

 and that the material in hand belongs with figs. 6b and 6c, on pi. Ixiii, of 

 his great work. It may in fact have come from the same localit}-. iNever- 

 theless, while I refer all the stems and branches to the same specific division, 

 I trust that the figures and following description of the recently collected 

 material will be sufficient both to enable geologists to recognize the plant 

 on meeting it, and also to serve as a line of differentiation, if it is ultimately 

 found desirable to di^dde the material placed at present under the above 

 name. 



The description of the later collected material is, Ijrieflv, as follows: 



Stems rather small, brandling freely at a narrow angle; branches and branchlets 

 generally straight, rigid, and robust, the smaller ones rather thickly set with leaves; 

 bolsters small, close, rhomboidal or rhomboidal-oval, 4 to 12 times as long as wide, acute 

 or acuminate at the end, sometimes foreshortened by pressure, the lateral angles well 

 rounded, marked by a low, narrow carinate and generally inconspicuous cauda, which 

 extends from the lower angle nearly up to the leaf scar, and a few quite obscure, short, 

 transverse frets in the lower portion ; foliar cicatrices in the upper part of the bolsters, 

 l)laced so that the lower angle frequently reaches the middle of the bolster, rather 

 more than oue-half the width of the latter, slightly protruding, transversely rhom- 

 boidal, the upper margins usually a very little longer than the lower and very slightly 

 concave, the lower borders nearly straight, the upper angle rounded, the lateral acute 

 angles blunt or slightly rounded in the twigs, the lower angle well rounded; trans- 

 piratory vents, a short distance on either side of the median Hue, oval and generally 

 quite obscure; vascular trace punctiform, situated a little way below the middle of the 

 scar; lateral cicatricules rather close, punctiform or vertically oval and small; ligular 

 scar punctiform in a V-shaped depression a short distance above the apex of the leaf 

 scar; leaves close, 12 to 35 mm. long, open at the base, arching outward and curving 

 upward, very narrow, taperuig to an acuminate, nearly erect tip, somewhat angular 

 on the dorsal surface, often markedly so; midrib threadlike, in rounded relief on the 

 dorsal surface; lateral grooves usually sliglitly marked ou the dorsal surface. 



The fragment of stem shown on PI. LV, Fig. 2, with the detail (PI. 

 LIV, Fig. 5), is a good example of the larger portions of stem seen, while the 



