Carruthers — On Fossil Coniferous Fruits. 539 



the fruits figured by Lindley and Hutton under the names of Zamia 

 crassa, Z. macrocephala, and Z. ovata. 



Miquel, in his "Monographia Cycadearum" (1842), accepts 

 Endlicher's genus Zamiostrobus, but places it at the end of the order 

 on account of its anomalous one- seeded carpellary scale. Goppert 

 also adopts this genus (Uebersicht der Schlesischen Gresellschaft, 

 18M, p. 128), considering, with Endlicher and Miquel, that it is the 

 type of an extinct tribe of Cycadece. He adds three additional species 

 wliich had been referred by Morris in the first edition of his 

 " Catalogue of British Fossils," to Zamites. I think, with him, that 

 it is well to have a provisional genus for detached fossil Zamia- 

 like fruits until their relation to stem and foliage has been esta- 

 blished, but I regret that he adopted Endlicher's genus with the 

 original description, and placed in it three additional cones, the in- 

 ternal structiu-e of two of which was altogether unknown ; and that 

 of the third, as far as known, was totally different from the supposed 

 structure of Z. macroceflialus. The confusion thus introduced was 

 increased hj Unger, who added three other species in his '' Genera 

 et Species Plantarum Fossilium," 1850, not one of which has any- 

 thing in common but its strobiliform shape. Miquel, in his 

 "Prodromus Systematis Cycadearum," 1861, gives all the seven 

 species, adding in a note that perhaps some are species of Cup-essinecs, 

 and specially querying Z. crassus, the only one in the seven which is 

 probably Cycadean. 



Corda, in Eeuss's "Die Versteinerungen der Bohmischen Kreide- 

 formation," vol. ii. p. 84 (1846), carefully examines the affinities of 

 Zamia macrocepJiala. From its structure he concludes that it is 

 certainly not a species of Zamia, as the scales are arranged in a 

 different order, and the seeds are on the upper surface of the scales, 

 unless, as he suggests, the woodcut by Henslow is a mere fiction. 

 He shows that it is totally different irom Dion, the only recent genus 

 of Cycadece with imbricated scales. And he concludes that if Zamia 

 macrocepJiala has seeds in pairs on one plane, or even if it has only a 

 single seed, it may be a Conifer, belonging to a new genus allied to 

 Dammara, if it is not a species of Dammara itself. He thinks End- 

 licher did well in creating the Cycadean genus Zamiostrobus for it. 

 Except that Corda did not observe that Henslow's figure was a dia- 

 grammatic restoration to show his notion of the relation of the seed 

 to the scale,, and consequently, like Endlicher, misinterprets it, he has 

 from the materials at his command made a very masterly investiga- 

 tion into the affinities of this fossil. 



This brings the literature of this interesting fossil up to the pre- 

 sent time, and before leaving this subject it may be as well to state 

 what the seven species placed in this false genus are. Three species 

 are in this paper shown to be true Coniferce. I have already re- 

 ferred another species, Z. Pippingfordiensis, Ung. (Geol. Mag. vol. 

 iii. p. 249), to Araucaria. What Z. Fittoni, Ung., may be, or may 

 not be, it is impossible to say from Fitton's drawing in the Geolo- 

 gical Transactions, 2nd series, vol. iv. tab. xxii. /. 11. Fitton had a 

 longitudinal section of it made, but he tells us (1. c. p. 349) that it 



