376 Linncean Society. 



June 15 — The Lord Bishop of Norwich, President, in the Chair. 



Read " Some Account of an undescribed Fossil Fruit." By 11. 

 Brown, Esq., D.C.L., V.P.L.S. &c. &c. 



This singularly beautiful and instructive fossil, which had for 

 many years formed part of the collection of Baron Roget in Paris, 

 was brought to London in 1843, and purchased jointly by the British 

 Museum, the Marquis of Northampton and Mr. Brown. Nothing is 

 known of its origin, but from its obvious analogy in structure and 

 mineral condition with Lepidostrobus, Mr. Brown conjectures it to 

 belong to the same geological formation. 



The specimen is evidently the upper half of a strobilus very gra- 

 dually tapering towards the top. As brought to England it was not 

 quite two. inches in length, but a transverse slice, probably of no 

 great thickness, had been removed from it in Paris ; and the trans- 

 verse diameter of the lower slices somewhat exceeded the length of 

 the specimen. Its surface, which was evidently water-worn, is 

 marked with closely approximated unequal- sided hexagons, which 

 are the terminations of bractese, and become smaller and less distinct 

 towards the top. 



From transverse and vertical sections it appears that the strobilus 

 is formed of a central axis of small diameter, compared with the parts 

 proceeding from it, which consist : 



1. Of bractese, densely approximated and much-imbricated, having 

 their lower halves at right angles to the axis, while the imbricating 

 portion, of equal length with the lower and forming an obtuse angle 

 with it, is gradually thickened upwards. These form the spokes 

 and external rhomboidal arese seen in the transverse section. 



2. Of an equal number of oblong bodies, of a lighter colour and 

 more transparent, each of which is adnate to and connected by cel- 

 lular tissue with the upper surface of the corresponding bractea. 

 These bodies are sections of sporangia, filled with innumerable mi- 

 croscopic sporules, originally connected in threes, very rarely in 

 fours, but ultimately separating. From this triple composition or 

 union of sporules, which differs from the constantly quadruple 

 union in tribes of existing plants, namely Ophioglossece and Lyco- 

 podiacece, which from other points of structure may be supposed to 

 be most nearly related to the fossil, Mr. Brown has named it 

 Triplosporite. 



The structure of the axis, which is well-preserved, distinctly 

 shows, in the arrangement of its vascular bundles, a preparation for 

 the supply of an equal number of bractese. These vascular fasciculi 

 are nearly equidistant in a tissue of moderately elongated cells. 

 The vessels are exclusively scalariform, very closely resembling those 

 of the recent Ferns and Lycopodiacea, and among fossils, those of 

 Psarolites, Lepidodendron and its supposed fruit Lepidostrobus, as 

 well as several other fossil genera, namely Sigillaria, IJlodendron and 

 Diploxylon. 



Mr. Brown does not propose to enter fully into the question of 

 the affinities of Triplosporite \ but contents himself with remark- 



