174 Notices of Memoirs— Dr. D. H. Scott— Fossil Plants. 



For instance, Heligoland in the year 800 is sLown in Myers' map 

 to be of great size ; this is in conflict with our curve, as the year 

 600 being near the high-water period, the island should have been 

 email in size. On investigation we find that we have testimony 

 equally strong that the island was small at that time. The description 

 of the island by Adam of Bremen shows that it was not much larger 

 than now in the time of Charlemagne (768 to 814), ("Principles," 

 9th ed., p. 329). (For this map of Heligoland in 800, see Von Hoff's 

 " Geschichte," etc., vol. i, p. 56.) 



Another item tending to invalidate our curve is the legend as to the 

 submergence of lands now beneath the sea in Cardigan Bay, Wales. 

 Pennant states that these lands — the Cantre'r Gwaelod — were over- 

 whelmed by the sea about the year 600 (Pennant's " Tours in Wales," 

 vol. ii, p. 274). In "The Gossiping Guide to Wales," however, we 

 read, " We are not aware that any date is assigned " to this disaster 

 (p. 37). It seems that what little is known of this inundation is 

 derived from a poem by one Prince Gwyddno, who flourished between 

 the years 460 and 520. There is no evidence that Gwyddno witnessed 

 the event he describes, and it can be readily surmised that he merely 

 reduced to verse the current traditions of an event that may have 

 occurred three or four generations before his time. If this was the 

 case, the Sarn Badrig and its attached legends would be evidence 

 confirmatory of our curve. In any case we are assured that the date 

 fixed by Pennant is uncertain and offers no reliable testimony 

 against us. 



{To be continued in our next Nitmber.) 



nsroTXGES OIF nvniEiMioiss- 



On the Structure and Affinities of Fossil Plants fro^i 

 THE Palaeozoic Eocks. IV. The Seed-like Fructification 

 OF Lepidocarpon, a Genus of Lycopodiaceous Cones from 

 the Carboniferous Formation. By D. H. Scott, M.A., 

 Ph.D., F.R.S., Hon. Keeper of the Jodrell Laboratory, Eoyal 

 Gardens, Kew. 



A SHORT account of the new genus Lepidocarpon has been given 

 in a note communicated to the Royal Society last August ; ^ the 

 present paper contains a full, illustrated description of the fossils in 

 question, together with a discussion of their morphology and affinities. 



The strobilus of Lepidocarpon Lomaxi, the Coal-measure species, is, 

 in its earlier condition, in all respects that of a Lepidostrohus, of the 

 tj'pe of L. Oldhamius. 



In each megasporangium, however, a single megaspore or embryo- 

 sac alone came to perfection, filling almost the whole sporangial 

 cavity, but accompanied by the remains of its abortive sister-cells. 

 An integument ultimately grew up from the sporophyll, completely 

 enclosing the megasporangium, and leaving only a narrow slit-like 



1 "Note on the Occurrence of a Seed-like Fructification in certain Palaeozoic 

 Lycopods": Eoy. Soc. Proc, vol. Ixvii, p. 306. 



