14 D. M. S. Watson — On Limulus Woodwardi, Lower Oolite. 



the Conifcrales themselves sprang from the Cordaitales, which is 

 widely but not universally accepted as a working hypothesis, would 

 then receive strong support, and the Cordaitean-like leaves would b& 

 easily explained. Even in some modern Araucariae, such as Agathis 

 {Bammara) lormithifolia, Sal., the leaves also to some extent recall 

 those of a modern Monocotyledon, and are not entirely dissimilar to 

 those of Cordaifes. 



I am thus inclined to regard the question of the affinities of this 

 family of Mesozoic plants as an entirely open one until the fructi- 

 hcation is discovered. At the same time I think it probable that the 

 fructification will be found eventually to have departed somewhat 

 from the type characteristic of the Cordaitales. 



There remains the discussion of the name by which these Bunter 

 and Keuper fossils should be known. Unless we adopt the attribution 

 to Cordaites outright, which seems to me to be hardly justifiable, and 

 if we regard the afiinities of this plant as still wholly obscure, there 

 seems to be no better course than to fall back on the original name 

 Tuccites rogesiacui of Schimper & Mougeot, as a tempoi'ary and 

 2)rovisional expedient until more information is available. At present 

 the genus Yuccites does not appear to have any established position. 

 The name is of course open to the grave objection that it suggests 

 affinity with the Monocotyledons, to which group, as also in the case 

 of Eolirion, it was originally referred. Tet, on the other hand, there 

 do not appear to be any species of Yuccites known beyond doubt to 

 belong to the Monocotyledons, and the invention of a new genus, 

 whether implying affinity to the Cordaitales on the one hand or to the 

 Coniferales on the other, does not appear to me to be advisable on 

 the present evidence. I propose, therefore, to retain temporarily the 

 name Yuccites rogesiaciis, Schimp. & Moug., for these specimens from 

 the Bunter of the Tosges and the Keuper of Bromsgrove.^ 



IV. — LuiULTJS WOODWARDT, SP. NOV., FHOM THE LoWEK OoLlTE OF 



England. 



By D. M. S. Watson, B.Sc, Beyer Fellow of the Victoria Uiiiversity of 

 Manchester. 



MY friend Mr. F. H. Gravely during September, 1908, obtained 

 from the ruins of an old wall at Doddington, near Wellingborough 

 in Northamptonshire, the carapace of an Arthropod, the value of 



1 I take this opportiuiity of correcting two slips which appeared on p. 110, 

 paragraphs 2 and 3, of my preidous paper with regard to the horizons on which some 

 of the earlier Cycadophyteau fronds occur in the Pahrozoic rocks. I am indebted 

 to Professor Zeiller for calling my attention to these errors. The oldest known 

 specimens of Zamites, Fkif/iozamitcs, and PterophyUum should there be stated to be 

 derived from the Stephanian, and not from the Westphaliun. Similarly, the beds in 

 the Vosges from which Flaaiozamites was obtained are of Permian ao-e, and not 

 Westphalian as stated. Professor Zeiller also infomis me that the f ossif recorded by 

 Zalesskyas Plagiozamites from Manchuria has proved to be a Rhacopteris. Professor 

 Zeiller, iu his ' ' Bassin Houiller et Permien de Blanzy et du Creusot " , a memoir which 

 I did not see until after my paper had appeared, includes the Zamites Planchardi of 

 the Commentry Flora iu the genus Plagiozamites. Consequently the genus Zamites 

 is as yet unknown from the Palaeozoic rocks, and it is doubtful if any t'ypical 

 representatives have been described of earlier age than the Rhajtic. ' " 



