448 BENNETTITAIiES [CH. 



face of some of the bracts project slender radiating plates 

 (fig. 559, A') which no doubt mark the boundary of the super- 

 ficial and relatively large interseminal scales, like those forming 

 the so-called pericarp in Benneltites Gihsonianus. The receptacle 

 appears to have been conical, a feature recalling Benneltites 

 rather than Williamsonia. The saucer-like impression shown in 

 fig. 559, B, is practically identical with the corresponding portion 

 of Williamsonia Leckenbyi: the centre is occupied by a raised 

 area, the basal part of the receptacle, on which a series of peri- 

 pheral prominences represents the vascular strands; the sides 

 of the saucer show very clearly the reticulum formed by the 

 distal ends of interseminal scales. One reason for assigning this 

 species to Williamsonia rather than to Benneltites (or Cycadeoidea) 

 is the occurrence in the same bed of a peduncle 12 cm. long and 

 3 cm. broad which probably belonged to the parent-plant of the 

 cone. The surface of the peduncle shows spirally disposed scars 

 of bracts crowded at the distal end and more widely separated 

 in the lower portion. 



Williamsonia BucMandi (Unger). 



In 1837 Buckland^ gave an account of a ' unique and beautiful 

 fossil fruit' from Inferior Oolite beds at Charmouth in Dorsetshire 

 and stated that the type-specimen was in the Oxford Museum. 

 Professor SoUas kindly searched for the specimen some years 

 ago but without success. Buckland considered that the fruit 

 was related to the Pandanaceae and described it as follows: 

 ' The size of this fruit is that of a large orange, its surface is occupied 

 by a stellated covering or epicarpium, composed of hexagonal 

 tubercles, forming the summits of cells, which occupy the entire 

 circumference of the fruit. Within each cell is contained a single 

 seed, resembling a small grain of rice more or less compressed, 

 and usually hexagonal. When the epicarpium is removed, the 

 points of the seeds are seen, thickly studded over the surface of 

 the fruit. The bases of the cells are separated from the receptacle 

 by a congeries of foot-stalks formed of a dense mass of fibres, 

 resembling the fibres beneath the base of the seeds of the modern 

 Pandanus.' At the suggestion of Robert Brown he called the 



' Buckland (37) Vol. i. p. 505, Vol. n. p. 101, PI. Lxm. figs. 2—10. 



