W. Carruthers — Coal Plants from Brazil. 153 



(Beitrage, p. 17).^ In the only species described by Corda, L. crassi- 

 caule, the bases of the leaves are larger and proceed from the stems in a 

 line having the same direction as that of the leaves, which are articu- 

 lated to them. In these stems from Brazil, the permanent slender 

 bases of petioles (PI. V. Pigs. 1, 7, 8), shortly after leaving the stem, 

 take an ascending direction parallel to the surface of the stem, and pass 

 somewhat over the base of the petiole above before the leaf is given off. 

 In the fresh plant the imbricated petioles would give a continuous sur- 

 face parallel to the circumference of the stem. Although this appear- 

 ance is not exhibited in any of the specimens from Brazil, it is clearly 

 shown in a species from Cape Breton Island, for which I am indebted to 

 Mr. Edgecombe Chevallier. A. specimen of the same species is figured 

 by Geinitz under the all-absorbing name of Lepidostrohus variabilis, 

 Lindl. (Versteinerungen, tab. ii. figs. 1, 3, 4). In these figures the 

 stem is shown densely covered with the permanent petioles, and at B' 

 fig. 1, the imbricated surface of the end of the petioles is shown, while 

 at the margins of the specimen the relation of the leaves themselves to 

 the petioles is also clearly shown. It would be rash to affirm that this 

 structure is peculiar to the genus Flemingites, but future discoveries 

 may show that it is. 



In Flemingites Pedroanus the curve of the leaf is the reverse of that 

 of the permanent petiole, being bent outwards and downwards. The 

 impressions of the leaves on the shale is, in some specimens, so perfect, 

 that even the venation can be seen ; and this is parallel, as is shown in 

 the magnified portion on Plate Y., Fig. 6. 



The sporangia are considerably smaller than those of F. gracilis, 

 as may be seen by a comparison of figure 4, Plate V., with figures 4, 

 5, 6 of Plate XII. Geol. Mag. Vol. II., 1865, these various figures 

 being drawn to the same scale. The tri-radiate ridge on the under 

 surface, by which the sporangia were attached to the supporting shale, 

 is more delicate, and is produced further towards the circumference 

 than in the British species. The contents of one of the sporangia in a 

 compacted condition, yet with indications of their original granular 

 state, is shown in Fig. 2. The mineral condition of the sporangia is 

 like that of the specimens I have examined from our British de- 

 posits, and which Prof. Morris has described as " neither bituminized 

 nor mineralized, but in a state of brown vegetable matter." 



The discovery by Brongniart of a cone containing microspores in the 

 sporangia of its upper portion, and macrospores in those of its lower 

 portion,^ has led me to re-examine the nature of the contents of the 

 sporangia of these fossils, and somewhat to alter the opinions I ex- 

 pressed in the paper on Flemingites, which has been referred to. 



While the size of the individual plant is very variable among 

 species of the same natural order of Cryptogamia, that of the organs 

 of reproduction, the spores, is remarkably uniform. The spore of 



Glasgow, to whom science is indebted for the discoveiy of this very interesting deposit 

 of coal plants. I may add to the synonymy of Corda's species, Gycadium cijprinopholis, 

 Guillard = CycatfeVes cyprinopholis, Morris, a fossil from the Coal-measures of the 

 centre of France, hitherto considered to be a Cycadean stem. 



^ Comptes Eendus des Seances del'Academie des Sciences, Aout 17, 1868. Trans 

 lated in the Journal of Botany, Jan. 1869. 



