WILLIAMSONIA. 183 



are very inadequately and incorrectly reproduced in Saporta's 

 figure. If we now turn to tte specimen figured by the same 

 author as a peduncle of Williamsonia,^ and which, terminates in 

 what appears to be a closed Williamsonian inflorescence, we find the 

 characters are identical with those of the branch of the stem which 

 bears the Zamites fronds. Specimens of peduncles in the British 

 Museum, and others in the collections of Whitby, Scarborough, and 

 Leeds, afford similar proof of the identity of the detached peduncles 

 and the obliquely placed branch of the leaf -bearing stem. There 

 can be little doubt that the terminal bud-like structure on these 

 pedimcles is a young and unexpanded Williamsonia, but even if 

 this be disputed, there can be no question as to the identity of 

 the typical scale-leaves of Williamsonia and those of the terminal 

 bud on the peduncles. 



A specimen in the Whitby Museum shows a stem bearing two 

 diverging peduncles, and evidence of the same habit of growth is 

 afforded by an example ia the British Museum. In all probability 

 the stem figured by Saporta' bore another peduncle in addition 

 to that shown in the figure ; this is suggested not only by the 

 examination of other specimens but also by the oblique position 

 of the peduncle, which is not brought out in the figure. The 

 restoration of Zamites given by Williamson in his well-known 

 paper ' accurately represents what I believe to have been the 

 manner of attachment of the inflorescence and foliage-leaves to 

 the main stem. ' 



The whole subject of the Bennettiteae and other fossil Cycadales 

 will be more fully dealt with in a forthcoming monograph on 

 British Cycads to be published by the Palaeontographical Society. 



Specimens of both the fronds and flowers of Williamsonia gigas are 

 abundantly represented in the British Museum, and in the Natural 

 History Museum, Paris. Examples of fronds in the Newcastle 

 and Paris Museums suggest that the segments had an imbricated 

 arrangement in the young condition. Specimens of peduncles 

 are by no means common ; the best are those in the Museums of 

 Paris, Cambridge, Scarborough, Whitby, and Leeds. No undoubted 



' Saporta (91), pi. xv. 

 ' Saporta (75), pi. xi. fig. 1. 

 3 "Williamson (70), pi. liii. 

 » Seward (97), pp. 274-7. 



