4 Canadian Record of Science. 



pointed bracts, and some of them bear oval fruits, but only 

 a few of these remain, the greater part of them having ap- 

 parently fallen off before the plant was fossilized. There 

 may have been about 50 to 100 seeds or fruits on each peduncle, 

 and they seem to have been spirally arranged. So far the 

 characters do not differ from those of the genus Cordaites, 

 except that in those plants the spikes of fructification are 

 more usually lateral than terminal. Grand 'Eury, however, 

 figures 1 one form of Cordaicladus in which they are ter- 

 minal. 



The most remarkable peculiarity, however, appears in 

 the leaves, which instead of having the veins parallel, have 

 them forking at a very acute angle, and slightly netted by 

 the spreading branches of the veins uniting with the others 

 near them. This allies the leaves with those of the pro- 

 visional genus Noeggerathia, some of which have this pecu- 

 liarity, as also certain modern Cycads of the genus Zamia, 

 which Professor Penhallow has kindly pointed out to me. 

 Leaves with forking veins and even anastomosing to a certain 

 extent, are also known in certain fossils of the genera Otoza- 

 mites and Nceggerathiopsis, &c, which are referred to Cycads, 

 and the modern Cycadaceous genus Stangeria has forking 

 veins. The present plant would seem to be a form of Cordaitese, 

 tending to Noeggerathia, which mostpaleo-botanists believe to 

 have been a gymnospermous genus allied to Cordaites. The 

 affinities however, so far as can be judged, are nearer to the 

 latter ; and following the example of Grand 'Eury in his 

 nomenclature of the genera, I would propose the name 

 Dictyo-cordaites for the present genus, and the specific 

 name Lacoi, in honor of its discoverer. I may add here that 

 the general aspect of this plant must have been so near to 

 that of a Carboniferous species of Cordaites, as restored 

 many years ago in my Acadian geology, 2 that I reproduce 

 the figure here. 



1 Flore Carboniferce, PL XXV, Fig. 4. 



2 Second Edition, 1868, Page 458, figure 172. 



