202 J. Star/cie Gardner — Mesozoic Angiosperms. 



it, if not the earliest, one of the earliest representatives of the 

 Monocolytedonous group." 1 The stem is somewhat compressed; 

 and the piece preserved is evidently from near the base, the three 

 joints of which it is composed diminishing rapidly, the first 

 measuring 2 inches, the second If-, the third 1^ inches in height. 

 The diameter of the middle joint is about 5 inches, but its crushed 

 condition has no doubt considerably added to the width, which 

 was probably nearer 3^ inches before compression. The exterior 

 has a smooth and silky look, with fine longitudinal veins. The 

 nodes are depressed, about -^ of an inch wide, and bordered by 

 slight collars or thickenings. The stem seems to have been 

 hollow, though it may perhaps have been solid like the sugar- 

 cane ; it has an altogether different texture to that of Calamites 

 or Equisetum. There are unfortunately no other organs in these 

 beds which can be even tentatively united with it. 



Supposed Monocotyledonous stem from the Jurassic of Yorkshire. 



[Owing to the unfortunate loss of the wood engraving in transit 

 by rail, the figure of Prof. Williamson's specimen had at the last 

 moment to be omitted, but will be inserted in the June Number. — 

 Edit. Geol. Mag.] 



The specimen figured, Plate V. Fig. 1, a and 6, is now in the Wood- 

 wardian Museum, and is also stated to have come from the York- 

 shire Oolites. As in all fossil vegetables from these deposits, there is 

 no internal structure preserved, and we are therefore only able to 

 deal with the exterior. This appears to represent on one side a ropy 

 ligneous stem, slightly twisted, and with a half-lunar section. On 

 the other side is a thick, closely adherent spathe, rather smoother 

 than the stem, but furrowed, very thick and leathery, acutely pointed 

 at the top, and narrowed and amplexicaul at the base. The spathe 

 or pod is 9 inches long, 2^ broad, and \h inches deep in its greatest 

 diameter. There is a slight swelling near the base, with two or three 

 projections, as if there were ovules under the spathe, then a contrac- 

 tion, and then the main swelling with apparent traces of more ovules 

 under it, especially towards the apex. The seeds or fruits would 

 appear to be oval and about half an inch in length. At the base, 

 where the spathe joins the stem, its substance is seen to be iVth of 

 an inch in thickness, and it is an inch across ; the stem itself being 

 1^ inches wide, rather compressed and squarish. It increases upward 

 with the spathe, becoming more crescentic in section, and again 

 diminishes as the spathe commences to taper to a point. Though 

 the transverse section reveals no structure, it shows clearly the 

 demarcation between spathe and fruit and the stem. 



It forcibly reminds us of some palm spathes and fruits, and if it 

 should prove to be merely concretionary, it would certainty be a case 

 of most extraordinary mimicry. Such a view seems however, quite 

 out of the question, and we cannot help regarding it as a mono- 



1 On some Anomalous Oolitic and Palaeozoic Forms of Vegetation, Royal Instituion, 

 Feb. 16, 1883. 



