56 W. Carruthers — Notes on Fossil Plants. 



appearance of being possessed with a marginal wing. This marginal 

 dilatation returns to the seed at the place of attachment of the 

 pedicel, and produces in this way the cordate base which is charac- 

 teristic of the fruits. The pericarp is also open at the apex ; and the 

 elongated tubular apex of the perisperm passes up to this opening. 

 The seed forms a distinct swelling in the centre of the fruit, and a 

 slight ridge passes up the middle to the base of the apical opening. 



In endeavouring to interpret the meaning of these structures, we 

 find that there are some points about which there still exists great 

 obscurity. First, what is the nature of the leaf organs of the axillary 

 bud ? Are they the parts of a floral envelope, as was supposed by 

 Lindley and Hutton? The specimens are generally preserved in 

 shale as flattened carbonized impressions, so that it is very difficult 

 to determine with anything like precision the arrangement of the 

 parts. They appear to me to be leaves spirally arranged on a 

 shortened axis ; and this opinion is strengthened by Mr. Prestwich's 

 drawing of the species described by Prof. Morris, and by a specimen 

 of the same species in the British Museum, in both of which the axis 

 is considerably elongated, and the leaves rise at different levels from 

 the elongated axis. The fruit pedicels spring from among the leaves, 

 and apparently terminate the axis ; but it is probable that they are 

 axillary to the foliar organs. The fact that several pedicels spring 

 from each bud is opposed to the notion of the foliar organs being 

 parts of a floral envelope.^ There are no appendages to the apex of 

 the fruit, and I can detect no scars of appendages at the base where 

 the pedicel is articulated to the fruit. It appears to have been 

 achlamydeous, and was probably also dioecious. The aspect of the 

 fruit as it is ordinarily preserved agrees remarkably with that 

 of a single fruit of Welwitschia. It has an apparently winged 

 pericarp, inclosing a seed, the integument of which is produced into 

 a styliform process, that passes through a canal in the pericarp. 

 But the thickened pericarp suggests a Taxineous fruit, with which, 

 from the description I have given, it will be seen that it has many 

 points in common. In TaxinecB, however, the fruit is terminal, gene- 

 rally solitary and sessile, with a more fleshy pericarp. On the whole, 

 I am inclined to consider Cardiocarpon as a Gymnosperm of an extinct 

 type, confined as far as is yet known to the Palaeozoic rocks. 



There are two easily distinguished species of Cardiocarpon found 

 in British rocks associated with spicate inflorescence. These are: — 



1. C. Lindleyi, Carr. Woodcuts, Figs. 1 and 2 [AnthoUthes Fitcairnice, 

 Lindl. and Hutt., Foss. FL, pi. 82, fig. 2). Spike with sub-opposite 

 axillary axes, bearing four to six lanceolate leaves and three or four 

 pedicels. Primary bracts short and arcuate. Fruit ovate, cordate with 



1 My colleague, Dr. Trimen, lias pointed out to me the remarkable fruits of Mr. Miers' 

 genus Sciadotenia (Contr. to Botany, vol. iii., p. 340, pi. 138), which are supported 

 on elongated carpophores that are gradually developed beyond the termination of the 

 floral axis, as the firuits advance towards maturity. This singular structure led to a 

 misapprehension of the nature of the carpophores in the first instance, and should 

 modify the general statement I have made above ; but inasmuch as we are not likely 

 to find affinities among the Menispermacece to the plants of the Coal Period, it may 

 be allowed to remain in its present connexion. 



