part 4] OTTOKAEIA-LIKB PLAjSTT EEOM SOUTH AFKICA. 287 



circular, but slightly auriculate at the base, and has a diameter of 

 about 20 mm. Its outlines are not sharply demarcated, and the 

 surface-characters are not like those of the Indian specimen. 

 It would appear as though the original surface had been removed. 

 On the other hand, we see a series of slightly raised humps of 

 brownish material, often connected by ribs of the same substance, 

 which seem to have formed part of a system spreading and forking 

 from the point of attachment of the stalk. In one or two places 

 these ridges appear to terminate in irregular masses suggesting 

 the scars of appendages produced at right angles to the plane of 

 our specimen. If the browai ridges are examined with a binocular 

 microscope, they show in several places clear indications of a 

 cellular structure, the cells being small and rectangular in shape, and 

 suggesting the original presence of thickened strengthening tissue. 

 These indications of a spreading system of ridges are comparable 

 with the surface appearance of the tyjDe Ottokaria ; but in that 

 case they were much closer, smaller, and more numerous. 



The edge of the head is quite indefinite ; but, as seen under the 

 binocular microscope with oblique light, there are indications of a 

 series of dentate projections, again fewer in number and larger in 

 size than in the Indian example, though suggestive of a comparison. 

 These projections are Yerj indistinct, and may perhaps be only 

 accidents of preservation. 



The third region may be termed the wing, this word being used 

 without prejudice to the nature and origin of the structure so 

 designated. It arises towards the lower part of the head, and 

 expands gradually to a width of 3 cm. as measured transversel}"^ 

 near the top of the head ; it then narroAvs, but its entire apical 

 portion is not seen, owing to the fracture of the matrix at a 

 distance of 2 cm. from the head. The ' wing ' thus presents an 

 elliptical or slightly ovate shape, with an entire margin. 



While the head appears as though formed from a more or less 

 solid, perhaps spherical body, the wing presents the appearance of 

 formation from a thin or flattened structure. A good deal of the 

 original plant-tissue is again represented by a white amorphous 

 substance with a smooth surface ; but in se veral places this has 

 disappeared. There is no sharp line of demarcation between the 

 wing and the head : in some places the white altered tissue of the 

 wing appears to extend over the head, in other places the head seems 

 to be delimited by a crack, though the substance on each side of the 

 crack appears very similar. 



There are no clear indications of the original nature of any of 

 these structures save the stalk, nor of their morphological category. 

 There can be little doubt of the vegetable origin of the fossil, and 

 it seems highly probable that it was connected with the repi'oduc- 

 tion of the plant on which it grew. Until further specimens are 

 available, I think that we may regard the head as a kind of woody 

 cupule in which a seed or seeds were produced ; and it is quite 

 possible that the structure here called the ' Aving ' was a large 



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