438 Carruthers—On a Fossil Cone from the Coal-measures. 
now seems to me that it would be under-estimating the importance 
of this singular structure were I to place the cone in Lepidostrobus. 
I therefore propose to establish a new genus, and to associate it 
with the name of the late Prof. Fleming, who was the first to draw 
attention to the detached spore-cases ; and Ido this the more heartily, 
as I ever recall with gratitude and delight the lessons in the class- 
room, the study, and the field, which I received from one who was 
unsurpassed as a careful observer and exact interpreter of nature. 
The two genera are thus contrasted :— 
Lepidostrobus.—Each scale of the cone supporting a single oblong 
sporangium. 
Flemingites.—Each scale of the cone supporting a double series 
of roundish sporangia. 
F. gracilis.—Cone slender, cylindrical, very slightly tapering at 
the base, composed of a solid axis and numerous imbricated 
scales, ten in a whorl. The apex of the scale long and slender. 
Sporangia attached by a triradiate ridge. 
The affinities between the fossil Lepzdostrobus and recent plants have 
been illustrated by Brongniart, Brown, and Hooker. In the minute 
structure of the axis and scales, in the arrangement of the parts, and 
the relation the sporangium bears to the supporting scale, there is 
nothing to separate it from Lycopodiacee. I have placed on the 
plate a magnified section of a small cone of the well-known and 
widely-distributed Lycopodium cernuum, a species which sometimes 
attains a height of 6 feet, and has the aspect of a diminutive Le- 
pidodendron. A glance at the drawing (fig. p) will show that the 
general resemblance is very striking. The cone of Memingites, how- 
ever, introduces a structure more removed from the recent Lycopo- 
diacee; but a little examination may convince us that this is not 
so abnormal as at first sight appears. The sporangia of Lycopo- 
dium are generally described as axillary, and for all practical pur- 
poses this is quite satisfactory ; but they are really supported on the 
scale as shown in the section of the spike of Lycopodium cernuum. 
Even in species where the sporangium seems to be really axillary, it 
always separates with the scale when that is torn from the fresh 
plant. In 7'mesipteris, an Australian Lycopodiaceous genus, the 
relation of the two-celled sporangium to the leaf is very obvious. The 
attachment, then, of the sporangium in Lepidostrobus may be con- 
sidered the normal arrangement in Lycopodiacee, and the difference 
between that genus and Flemingites is only the increased number of 
sporangia on each scale. 
A monstrosity in Equisetum described by Milde, and an interest- 
ing specimen of which is in the possession of Mr. Clarke, who called 
my attention to it, deserves to be noticed here, as it seems to me to 
throw light on these fossil cones. Mr. Clarke’s specimen is Hquise- 
tum limosum. It has the annulus at the base of the spike converted 
into a large-toothed foliaceous membrane, and some of the teeth 
bear one or two sporangia on the surface near the apex. The spo- 
rangia are exactly like those on the scales of the spike. Milde 
describes specimens where the annulus is converted into a true 
