486 Professor A. C. Seward—Fossil Plants from South Africa. 
which Unger founded this species! was obtained from Thuringian 
rocks referred to an Upper Devonian horizon ; the surface showed the 
remains of spirally arranged rhombic areas similar to those of the 
African specimen, and the anatomical structure was compared by 
Unger with that of Lepidodendron Harcourtit. Solms-Laubach,? on 
examining Unger’s type-specimen, found that the comparison was 
based on a misinterpretation, and that the supposed surface-features 
are those of a partially decorticated stem. 
The Queensland fossils are considered by Carruthers, whose opinion 
is supported by Solms-Laubach,? as specifically identical with Dawson’s 
Leptophiaum rhombicum.* 
M’Coy*® instituted the name JLepidodendron australe for some 
specimens found in rocks of Lower Carboniferous age in Victoria, 
Australia; the fossils so designated are regarded by many authors as 
identical with the Queensland specimens of Carruthers. It seems 
clear that the Queensland and Victoria fossils should be described 
under the same name, but, as Kidston® has pointed out, it is by no 
means certain that Carruthers was correct in referring his specimens 
to Unger’s species. 
An examination of the material described by Carruthers and 
of the figures published by Feistmantel? and other authors leads 
me to apply M’Coy’s specific name to the impression from South 
Africa. A similar, though probably not an identical, plant has 
been described by Krasser® from China, and from the Devonian of 
Spitzbergen Nathorst® has figured an impression under the name 
Bergeria—a term employed for certain forms of decorticated Lepido- 
dendron stems—which appears to be identical with the Australian 
type. From the Lower Carboniferous strata of the Argentine 
Szajnocha” describes another example of this form of stem as 
a Lepidodendron of the Lepidodendron nothum group. For a full 
account of Lepidodendron australe, from the point of view of its 
identity with Lepidodendron nothum and as regards its geological 
range, reference may be made to a paper by Mr. Etheridge," as also 
to one by Messrs. David & Pittman.” 
As M’Coy originally pointed out, his species Lepidodendron australe 
agrees closely with a Lepidodendron stem in the Bergeria condition. 
It may be that the numerous specimens included under his species are 
impressions of stems which have lost their superficial tissues. Until 
more is known as to the structure of these plants we cannot be 
certain as to generic position. Assuming the fossils to be those of 
1 Unger: Denksch. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, xi (1856), p. 175. 
2 Solms-Laubach: Abh. k. Preuss. geol. Landesanst., Heft xxiii, 1896. 
3 Fossil Botany, 1891, p. 200. 
4 Dawson: Geol. Surv. Canada, 1871, pl. vii. 
5 M’Coy: Prod. Pal. Victoria, dec. i, 1874. 
6 Kidston: Catalogue of the Paleozoic Plants in the British Museum, 1886, p. 231. 
7 Feistmantel: Mem. Geol. Surv. N.S. Wales, Palwont., No. 3 (1890), pl. il. 
8 Krasser: Denksch. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Bd. Ixx (1900), pl. u1, fig. 1. 
9 Nathorst: K. Svensk. Vetenskaps Akad. Hand., xxvi, No. 4, pl. il. 
10 Szajnocha: Sitzber. k. Akad. Wiss. Wien, Bd. C, Abth. i (1891), p- 203. 
11 Etheridge : Rec. Geol. Surv. N.S. Wales, vol. ii, oie 3. 
12 David & Pittman : idid., vol. iii, pt. 4. 
