19 



LYCHNOPHORITES SUPERUS. 



HIGH-LEAFED LYCHNOPHORITE. 



Generic Character. 

 Steni branched, covered with tubercles ; tubercles leaf-bearing ; leaves narrow. 



Specific Character. 

 LYCHNOPHORITES superus. Tubercles terminating obtusely at top ; cicatrix 

 quadrangular at the upper extremity of the tubercle, gland-bearing ; gland central ; 

 mid-rib of the leaf forming a continuation of the longitudinal ridge on the back of the 

 tubercle. 



Synonyms. 

 This fossil plant has not yet been found described or figured. 



Description and Locality. 



Stem cylindrical or slightly compressed, entirely covered with tubercles ; having 

 internally two piths or spines, the surface of which is bituminized. 



Tubercles rhomboidal, rather blunt at top, pointed at bottom, ridged longitudi- 

 nally, with a cicatrix on their upper part. 



Cicatrices four-sided, with a small gland in the middle, leaf-bearing. 



Leaves lanceolate, ribs many, connivent ; the side ribs absent towards the base, 

 and thus forming two depressions on each side of the mid-rib, which coincides with the 

 ridffe of the tubercle. 



Found in one of the sandstone quarries on Swinton Common, near Rotherham, 

 in Yorkshire. 



Observations. 



The surface of the internal pith being bituminised seems to indicate that their 

 external membrane was a kind of bark. 



The part exhibited in the figure is part of a large branch ; the appendiculated 

 figure A, shows the leaf, and B, the tubercle with the cicatrix and gland in the upper 

 part. 



Dr. Martius refers these fossil plants to a recent shrubby genus of syngenesious 

 plants which cover the plains of Brazil, and which he names lychnophora, from whence 

 he formed this fossil genus, by changing the termination, according to the common 

 usage. 



