82 BRITISH CHAROPHYTA. 



Dr. Stache constituted a separate genus, Kosinogyra, for 

 the plants with fruits so ornamented. The tubercles on 

 the fruits of one of his species, K. superba (see Fig. 30), 

 are remarkably regular in arrangement and evenly 

 rounded in outline. The other new genus, Lagynophora, 

 is based on a number of vegetative parts as well as fruit 

 remains, and represents an extremely interesting and 

 distinct type (see Fig. 31). The fruits, as the name 

 implies, are flask-shaped, the spiral-cells being prolonged 

 upwards and forming a cylindrical projection at the 

 apex. The fruits occur in great numbers attached to 

 the branchlets — a very unusual state of things with 

 fossil Charophytes. The plant was extremely small. 



Fio. 30. — Kosmogyra superba, Staehe (after Stache), from Lower Eocene, 

 Liburnische Stufe, end view. 



the fruiting whorls apparently not much exceedmg 

 3 mm. across. The stem was corticate, the whorls 

 consisted of 6-9 branchlets formed in some species of 

 one, in some of more than one segment, but with only a 

 single fruiting node. At the node (or nodes) a whorl of 

 lateral rays arise, which, at the fruiting nodes, surround 

 the fruit. Five species were described. Thanks to the 

 kindness of Dr. Drejer I have had the opportunity of 

 examining some of Dr. Stache's type-specimens of 

 Charophyta preserved in the Vienna Museum. 



In some Eocene beds of North America, the age of 

 which in relation to the European beds it is difficult to 

 fix, Dr. Knowlton (7) found several types of Charophyte- 

 fruits, one of which, C. compressa, Knowlt., is appreciably 

 broader than long. 



