316 PROF. A. C. SEWARD AKD MR. J. WALTON OX [vol. Ixxix, 



fossils described as Hasiimima sp. from the Witteberg Beds of the 

 Cape Province, 1 which undoubtedly are closely allied to sj)eciinens 

 described \>j David White as Hastimima Whitei from the Coal 

 Measures of Brazil, and suspected by him to be animal rather than 

 vegetable in origin. Believing that the Brazilian and South 

 African fossils might be portions of body-segments of Enrypterids, 

 one of us, some years ago, submitted the Witteberg specimens 

 to Dr. Henry Woodward, 2 who identified them as fragments of an 

 Arthropod very similar in surface-features to the Upper Devonian 

 species Eurypterus liibemicus Bail. 



It is not easy, it is indeed impossible, to say with confidence 

 whether the Falkland Lepidodendroid stem-fragments belonged to 

 a plant more closely allied to such a genus as Cyclostigina, 

 including some Upper Devonian species referred to Bothrodendron, 

 or whether it should rather be compared with such older Devonian 

 types as Artlirostigma and Protolepidodendron. The largest pre- 

 Carboniferous tree so far described is Arcliceosiy illaria primceva 

 (Rogers) 3 — more correctly, Protolepidodendron primodvum, as 

 Beriy has called it — from Upper Devonian rocks at Naples (N.Y.). 

 Although not specifically identical with the Falkland fragments, 

 this tree shows on some parts of its surface leaf -cushions similar to 

 those shown in our text- rig. 1. Protolepidodendron is recorded 

 also from the Middle Devonian of Bohemia, 4 and, as Dr. Ii. Kidston 

 informs us, the genus has been recognized, although the specimens 

 have not been described, from the Middle Devonian of Caithness. 



In addition to the Lepidodendroid fragments from Halfway Cove 

 described by Dr. Halle, which we believe to be closely allied to, 

 or possibly specifically identical with, Dr. Baker's Port Purvis 

 specimens, the same author figures some ' indeterminable stem- 

 fragments' consisting of slender branched axes without appendages. 

 He compares these with Hostimella hostimensis Potonie & Bernard 

 from the Middle Devonian of Bohemia, although, as he states, 

 actual determination is impossible. One of the branches shown in 

 Halle's pi. vi, fig. 8 bears at the apex a globular swelling in which 

 the central region is differentiated from the more solid peripheral 

 portion. The account by Dr. E. Kidston & Prof. W. H. Lang 5 

 of the remarkable genus Hornea from Middle Devonian rocks in 

 Aberdeenshire suggested to one of us a possible clue to the nature 

 of the globular body described by Halle ; it seemed possible that the 

 central space might represent the more delicate columella-tissues of 

 the Hornea sporangium. The Lower Devonian fossil Hporoyonites 

 exuberans Halle, 6 from Norway, is undoubtedly a spore-bearing 

 organ similar in structure to Hornea. A letter written to 

 Dr. Halle in May 1921, in which a possible relationship of his 

 ' indeterminable stem-fragments ' with Hornea and Sporogonites 

 was suggested, elicited the following reply : ' I think it very likely 

 that the Hosti me lla -like fossil which 1 have described from the 



1 Seward (09). 4 Potonie' & Bernard (04) p. 38. 



2 Woodward (09). 5 Kidston & Lang (20). 



3 White, D. (07). c Halle (16) pi. iii, figs. 10-32. 



