STRUCTURE AND AFFINITIES OF LEPIDOSTROBI. 451 



hollow ; the anterior portion of this body is hence frequently removed, 

 as seen at Plate 8, figs. 3 and 5, leaving a "pitted surface to the 

 cones. 



Sporangia oblong, resting on the pedicel, and each attached by its 

 lower face towards the apex of the latter by a small surface. Some, 

 perhaps all, of these sporangia are furnished with ribs, Plate 4, fig. 5. 

 Walls formed of a single layer of transversely elongated cells, Plate G, 

 figs. 4 and 10, and Plate 8, fig. 6 a. Mode of dehiscence or bursting 

 to allow the escape of the spores unknown. 



Spores consisting of three, or rarely four sporules, which are after- 

 wards separated from one another, the immature produced at their 

 angles into acute spines, the older suborbicular. 



The two cones, from which the above general views have been de- 

 duced, are apparently from different species, and I shall therefore cha- 

 racterize them as such. Further, as they seem to have belonged to the 

 fossil Lepidodendron enclosing them, I shall for the future notice them 

 as really the fruit of that genus. 



1. Lepidodendron elegans. Cone slender, § inch in diameter, 4-10 

 inches long, sporangia 8 in a whorl. 



2. Lepidodendron Harcourtii 1 Cone broad, \\ inch in diameter, 

 sporangia about 16 in a whorl. 



If, now, these cones, be examined with reference to the known con- 

 temporaneous fossils which accompany them, it will appear impossible to 

 deny their having the reproductive organs of Lepidodendron, not only 

 from their association with the fragments of that genus, because the 

 arrangement of the tissue in the axis of the cone entirely accords with 

 that of the stem of Lepidodendron ; just as we find, in modern cones of 

 Lycopodiacece and Coniferce, that the axis is a continuation of the 

 branch which bears leaves, modified into organs adapted to support and 

 protect the parts of fructification. 



The most positive evidence that can be adduced of Lepidostrobi being 

 a genus allied to Lycopodium, is afforded by the spores, the presence of 

 which not only removes them from Cycadece, Coniferce, or any other 

 order of flowering plants, but directly refers them to the family of 

 Lycopodiacece and Conifers. In both, the original spore divides into 

 three or nearly four sporules, which are angular, and form the repro- 

 ductive system of the plant. Not only do these groups coincide in the 

 essential character of their spores, but, in many minor points, the 

 strongest similarity exists between them. The arrangement of the 

 scales is the same in both, and so are the scales themselves in general 

 features, especially towards their dilated apices. The situation of the 

 sporangia, too, is alike, and their attachment by a very narrow surface 

 to the scale. 



ii. 2 i 



