XXXVin] BFCKLANDIA 489 



mantel also called attention to the resemblance of the Indian 

 stems to specimens described from British strata as Biwklandia 

 and Yatesia. Although the Indian examples are very similar 

 to stems from Mexico discovered by Wieland^ and to some of 

 the Enghsh types, it seems desirable to refer to them under a 

 specific name and I therefore suggest the institution of the specific 

 name indica, the type-specimen being that represented in fig. 579. 

 This specimen is particularly interesting because it afiords some 

 information as to anatomical features and is one of the few fossil 

 stems preserved in organic connexion with leaves (fig. 579, B). 

 A short account of it was published in 1900^ and more recently 

 Miss Bancroft^ has made a fuller investigation of this and other 

 Indian specimens. The stem shown in fig. 579 from the Rajmahal 

 Hills, and now in the British Museum, bears fronds of Ptilophyllum 

 cutchense Morr., a type that appears to be indistinguishable from 

 P. pecten ; and with similar stems from the same beds are associated 

 flowers of Williamsonia. Miss Bancroft describes a bract-covered 

 shoot which agrees very closely with those of Enghsh stems repro- 

 duced in figs. 541, 542. In addition to the evidence based on 

 close association, there is the more important argument furnished 

 by the discovery of ramental hairs like those on the bracts of 

 Williamsonia scotica and of anatomical characters in the bracts 

 similar to those in the Scotch strobilus. The persistent leaf- 

 bases are far from uniform in size; in this respect and in their 

 form they agree closely with those on BucTdandia stems from 

 English and Mexican localities. The secondary wood is more 

 compact than in recent Cycads or in Cycadeoidea, though it 

 resembles that of Cycadeoidea micromyela; the medullary rays 

 are imiseriate and the tracheids have multiseriate bordered pits 

 on their radial walls instead of the scalariform pitting in the 

 majority of Cycadeoidea stems. Secretory canals are abundant 

 in the parenchymatous ground-tissue; the cambium and phloem 

 are not preserved*. 



The transparent nature of the silicified material rendered very 

 difficult the examination of the tissues, but enough was discovered 



1 Wieland (11) p. 440. == Seward (00) B. p. 194. 



' Bancroft (13). 



* For illustrations and further details see Bancroft (13) 



