INCERTAE SEDIS. 



In addition to the various plants which we can place in definite genera or families, 

 there are numerous fruits and seeds which differ from anything we have already figured, 

 but which we are still unable to identify. These we now describe as well as we can, in 

 the hope that some botanist with wider knowledge may be able to recognise them. Certain 

 of them, however, are so difficult of interpretation that we must leave the illustrations 

 to speak for themselves ; but we have avoided figuring specimens that appeared to be 

 hopelessly indeterminable. The fruits figured are only those which in our opinion show 

 characteristics sufficient for their determination, if the nearest living species could be 

 found. On the last plate we figure a group of fruiting bracts, fruiting branches, and 

 miscellaneous specimens which may be fruits, but may on the other hand be merely 

 galls. It seems advisable to draw attention to these objects, some of which are very curious. 



CARPOLITHES Sp. 1. 

 PI. XVII, figs. 34 a, b; 35 a, b. 



In 1907 we figured from Tegelen (op. cit. figs 122, 123) some curious flat fruits, 

 of which several had been found. We have since received from Dr. Tesch a still better 

 specimen (figs. 34 a, b), and have also found a single damaged fruit in material from 

 Brunssum. We are still quite unable to identify the plant; but its fruit is so characteristic 

 that there should be no doubt as to its determination, if the plant is still living. We have 

 suggested (p. 98) that it may be a new species of a new genus in the monotypic family 

 Eucommiaceae, now represented by a tree which grows in Western China, and we now 

 figure it side by side with a recent samara of Eucommia ulmoides (fig. 33). 



Fruit (a samara?) oblong compressed laterally, winged, attached ventrally close 

 to the lower end; epicarp now represented by an outer coat of loose reticulated fibres; 

 endocarp coriaceous, with a group of strong fibres passing upwards from the attachment 

 at about T distance from the ventral edge, dividing, anastomosing, and curving out at 

 right angles on either side to support a thin membranous wing. Wing and apex incomplete 

 in all the specimens examined, but perhaps cleft as in Eucommia. 



Length 18.0 mm., breadth 7.5 + mm. Tegelen, Brunssum. 



The lateral attachment makes this fruit appear very different from Eucommia; but 

 closer examination shows that though the attachment in Eucommia is terminal the vena* 

 tion above is sharply bent towards the dorsal side. The venation of Eucommia greatly 

 resembles that of our fruit; but there is no outer fibrous layer, such as is found in the 

 fossil. The resemblance may be merely accidental. 



CARPOLITHES Sp. 2. 

 PL XVII, fig. 36. 

 Fruit broadly pyriform, covered for T of its length by an accrescent calyx ; truncate 



139 



