THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



No. LVII.— MARCH, 1869. 



OE,IC3-IIsr.A.Ij -^I^TI03LEIS.■ 



I. — On Beania, a New Genus of Cyoadean Fkuit, feom the 

 Yorkshire Oolites. 



By "Wm. Cakruthers, F.L.S., F.G.S., of the British. Museum. 



(PLATE IV.) 



THE remarkable organs wliich are frequently associated with tlie 

 Zamia gigas of Lindley and Hutton, and wliich have always 

 been considered as in sonae way connected with the fructification of 

 that plant, are the only fossils that can be referred to Cycadean 

 fruits that have been hitherto observed in the Yorkshire Oolites, in 

 which the remains of Cycadean leaves are so abundant. These organs 

 have been made the subject of an elaborate memoir by Professor 

 Williamson, presented to the Linnean Society some months since, 

 and which it is to be hoped will soon appear in the Transactions of 

 that Society. He has brought together so many observations, made 

 during a life-acquaintance with these beds, that he has been 

 able to re-construct, with every appearance of truth on his side, a 

 singular genus, containing two well-marked species, and forming 

 a new tribe of Cycadece very different from any living form. 



Fruits closely related to those of the recent Cycadece have been 

 found in Oolitic strata. Lindley and Hutton described, as a 

 Pinus, a cone from the Inferior Oolite, which in a former communi- 

 cation to this Magazine (Vol IV. p. 101), I showed to be Cycadean, 

 and named Cycadeostrohus primcBviis ; and in the same paper I de- 

 scribed a second species from the Oxford clay of Wiltshire, 

 (C. sphcericus) . I now add a third from Phillips's " Uj)per Shale" 

 at Scarborough, which though agreeing in all essential jpoints 

 with the two species named, and with the living forms to which they 

 are related, yet differs sufficiently to demand its being placed in a 

 distinct genus. My colleague, Mr. Woodward, drew my attention 

 to this interesting fruit, in that part of the Bean collection acquired 

 some years since by the British Museum. It is not associated with 

 any Cycadean remains on the small slab on which it occurs, so that 

 there is no indication to which of the several leaf-species it belongs. 

 I hope the publication of this notice, accompanied with Mr. Smith's 

 admirable illustration, may bring to light other specimens that will 

 supply this desirable information. A small fragment of Acrosticliites 

 WilUamsonis, Brongn., occurs on the slab. 



VOL. TI.— NO. LVII. 7 



