CHAPTER XIX. 



Seed-bearing plants closely allied to members 

 of the Lycopodiales. 



i. Lepidocarpon. 



In 1877 Williamson^ published an account of some fossil 

 seeds which he referred to Brongniart's genus Cardiocar- 

 poTi^, a generic title for certain Gymnospermous seeds. Some 

 of these he identified, on the authority of the author of the 

 species, with Gardiocarpon anomalum, Carruthers*- Several 

 years later Wild and Lomax described a new type of strobilus 

 from the Lower Coal-Measures of Lancashire^- The result 

 of this discovery and of the subsequent examination by Scott 

 of additional material, was to establish the fact that the 

 seeds described by Williamson and generally accepted as 

 Gymnospermous, are in reality sporangia belonging to a 

 Lycopodiaceous cone. The seeds to which Carruthers gave the 

 name Gardiocarpon anomalum are, however, distinct from those 

 described under the same name by Williamson and are those of 

 a true Gymnosperm. For this seed-bearing strobilus Scott ^ 

 instituted the generic name Lepidocarpon, which he thus 

 defined : " Strobili, with the characters of Lepidostrobus, but 

 each megasporangium was inclosed, when mature, in an in- 

 tegument, growing up from the superior face of the sporophyll- 

 pedicel. Integument, together with the lamina of the sporo- 



1 Williamson (77) and (80) A. ^ Brongniart (28) A. p. 87. 



3 Carruthers (723). * Wild and Lomax (00). 



5 Seott (01). 



