496 J. Starkie Gardner — Fossil Floioering Plants. 



of attention to them, without, however, feeling justified in coming 

 to any very definite conclusion as to their true position in the vegetable 

 world. De Saporta, on the other hand, has found more perfectly 

 preserved specimens in France, and has no hesitation whatever in 

 referring them to the group of Pandanacece. Though there are still 

 many difficulties in the way, our own examination of the specimens 

 in London, Manchester, Cambridge, and elsewhere, tends to confirm 

 Saporta's view so far as that there do appear to be vestiges, in 

 some cases at least, of lignitic structure which may represent the 

 areolae or carpels. These rather minute cavities and the lignitic 

 matter surrounding them fall away on exposure to the air, and 

 only traces of them are visible. Should Saporta's contention 

 be upheld, Williamsonia will be by far the most perfectly known of 

 the Secondary Angiosperms, since all the organs of fructification 

 and even of foliation are more or less known. 



A still more definite Monocotyledon is the Podocarya, from the 

 Inferior Oolite, originally figured by Buckland, and redescribed by 

 Carruthers. Its resemblance to the fruit of Williamsonia, as in- 

 terpreted by Saporta, is extremely striking, and on suggesting this 

 to that author, he replied that he was in the act of preparing an 

 important work on the very subject. The same work is to include 

 an illustration of the most recent member of the group, obtained 

 from the Grey Chalk of Dover, and which we thought advisable to 

 communicate to him. 



Next in point of age, among English Monocotyledons, to the 

 Podocarya is the Kaidacarpum, from the Great Oolite, also described 

 by Carruthers, and by him referred to the Pandanew. We have been 

 able to ascertain that a second species, hitherto supposed to be of 

 Cretaceous age, from the Potton Sands, is a derived fossil, and un- 

 doubtedly Jurassic. A third species was originally figured, without 

 any reference in the letterpress as to its age or locality, by Lindley 

 and Hutton as Strobilites Buchlandi, in their ' Fossil Flora,' vol. ii. 

 p. 129, published between 1833-35, from a drawing made by Miss 

 E. Benett for Dr. Buckland. In the first edition of Morris's 

 1 Catalogue,' 1843, it is set down as from ' Gr. S. Wilts,' which cannot 

 mean either Lower or Upper Greensand, the abbreviations for which 

 are ' L. G. S.' and ' U. G. S.,' but which certainly looks like a mis- 

 print for ' Gr. 0.,' the sign for Great Oolite. In the second edition 

 of Morris, 1854, the locality is corrected to ' U. G. S. Wiltshire,' 

 but it appears likely that the correction may have been made without 

 ascertaining the facts de novo, for the only entry occurring in Miss 

 Benett's 'Catalogue of the Organic Bemains of Wiltshire,' published 

 in 1831, that could possibly refer to this fossil, is a ' Cycadeoideaf 

 from the Portland Beds, which occurs under the heading ' Woods ' on 

 p. 9. A journey to Newcastle with the object of examining the 

 Hutton collection of fossil plants, where it seemed probable the 

 specimen might be found, has been unsuccessful, and its present 

 whereabouts is still unknown. We think, it however, far more 

 likely to prove a Jurassic than a Cretaceous fossil if found, and the 

 genus should not be included in lists of plants of the latter age. 



