XXXVin] BTJCKLANBIA 483 



Bucklandia Ruffordi Seward. 



This species, from the Wealden beds on the Sussex coast^, was 

 originally described as Fitlonia Ruffordi, but in the absence of 

 any well defined distinctive features that can be regarded as of 

 morphological significance it is better to include it in Bucklandia. 

 The species afiords a good example of a long and narrow type of 

 stem, one specimen reaching a length of nearly 80 cm. with a 

 breadth of about 10 cm. ; the surface is covered with persistent 

 leaf-bases 1-7 cm. in depth with a scar agreeing in size and shape 

 with the base of a frond of Otozamites Goeppertianus (Dunk.)^ 

 found in the same beds. There is no indication of any alternation 

 of large and small leaf-bases, and the species is characterised by 

 the uniform size and relatively greater depth in a vertical direction 

 of the leaf-base areas. In all probability the stem bore fertile 

 branches similar to those of Williamsonia gigas with flowers of 

 the Williamsonia type : the fronds may have been those known 

 as Otozamites Goeppertianus, but this has not been demonstrated. 

 A stem described by Carruthers from the Lias of Lyme Regis 

 as Yatesia gracilis^ and afterwards included by me in Cycadeoidea* 

 is very similar to B. Ruffordi in its long and narrow form and in 

 the shape of the leaf-bases ; it should be transferred to Bucklandia 

 as B. gracilis (Carr.). 



Bucklandia Milleriana Carruthers. 



This species was founded on a cast from Lower Oolite beds 

 at Brora in Sutherlandshire^ characterised by leaf-bases very 

 similar to those of B. anomala but smaller. Casts from the same 

 locality were named by Carruthers Yatesia crassa and Y. Joas- 

 siana^, but an examination of specimens in the Dunrobin Museum 

 leads me to regard these forms as indistinguishable from B. 

 Milleriana. The specimen reproduced in fig. 576 from the Great 

 Oolite of Brora illustrates the external characters of a typical 

 stem and shows the variation in the size of the leaf-bases. 

 A portion of the pith-cast is exposed in the lower part of 

 the stem. 



1 Seward (95) A. p. 132, PI. ix. fig. 6; (13) p. 101. 



2 Ibid. PI. I. fig. 2. 3 Carruthers (70) p. 689, PI. LV, fig. 2. 

 « Seward (04) B. p. 45. * Carruthers (70) p. 687, PI. Lv. fig. 1. 



s Carruthers, p. 689, PI. lv. figs. 7—9. 



31—2 



