434 Carruthers—On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 
containing what is called Lycopode-powder. These and like bodies 
I, therefore, consider to be the sporangia or spore-cases of some plant 
allied to Lycopodium, perhaps Sigillaria. The valves present under 
the microscope a reticulated surface, and minute granular matter 
seems to be attached to the inner surface.—(Edin. Trans., vol. xxi. 
ol OI'). 
: Not only do these bodies exist in quantity in many coals, but 
some beds even of considerable thickness are almost entirely made 
up of them.* Their relation, however, to any organism that could 
have produced them was unknown until the discovery of a cone by 
Mr. James Russell, of Airdrie, a diligent and intelligent collector of 
Carboniferous fossils. Mr. Russell, aware of the importance of his 
discovery, gave me the specimen for description. It consists of the 
lower portion of the cone, very much compressed, as so many of 
these fossils are, in a layer of highly bituminous shale or impure 
coal. The fragment is 2} inches long, and the cone is fully three- 
quarters of an inch broad. The axis and scales are converted into 
coal, and the scales are covered with a double series of round flat- 
tened bodies of a dark-brown colour. ‘The axis occupies about a 
fifth of the diameter of the cone. In the fragment thirty scales rise 
from either side of the axis, and an examination of the scars on the 
surface of the axis satisfies me that there were ten scales in each 
whorl. The lower half or pedicel of the scale is at right angles to 
the axis, except at the base of the cone, where a few of the scales 
are inclined downwards, this inclination increasing as they near the 
base. The pedicel forms a broad and somewhat firm support for the 
sporangia. The apex of the scale is long, slender, and foliaceous, 
overlapping several scales, and reaching at least beyond the base of 
the fourth above it. The horizontal portion of the scale supports 
a number of sporangia, varying from ten to eighteen, placed in a 
double series throughout its length. The sporangia are generally 
flattened, and appear like small discs ; but sometimes the two walls 
are separated, as shown in fig. a 8. Professor Balfour figures a 
specimen which more nearly approaches to a sphere. They were 
most probably more or less flattened spheres; smooth above, but 
with a triradiate ridge -below, by which they were attached to the 
supporting scale (figs. A 5 and a 7). This ridge is formed by a 
simple bending down of the wall of the sporangium, and it produced 
a corresponding triradiate depression in the interior. A slight 
difference of texture is apparent on the spore-case, producing a faint 
line which unites the extremities of the ridge in a curvilinear tri- 
angle. ‘The sporangium is unicellular, and is composed probably of 
a layer of large elongated cells, their long axis forming the thickness 
of the spore-case, as in recent Lycopodiacee: the large cells have 
given the sporangium a finely granulated texture. The surface of 
many specimens is covered with prominences produced by grains in 
the interior, for a careful examination shows that the texture of the 
* Mr. Binney informs me that he is acquainted with a stratum of coal, some six 
feet thick, almost entirely made up of these bodies. 
