SG Scientific Intelligence. 



wise, in the case of the somewhat different accompanying fructi- 

 fication often found attached in the forks of the stems, the reviewer 

 believes with Nathorst that a bisporangiate strobilus with shed 

 staminate organs is represented, and that the central pear-shaped 

 axis is ovulate, and may or may not have been functional. It 

 was probably not functional, but one cannot yet say positively 

 whether this plant was monoecious, dioecious, or bisexual, etc. But 

 to continue to include it in the genus Williamsonia , the reviewer 

 believes to be inadvisable. In the first place the striking differ- 

 ences of stem and leaf might well in themselves be held of generic 

 value. Also the unknown microsporophylls may have varied 

 considerably from those of 'Williamsonia and Bennettites. For 

 instance, though more ancient, they may have been more reduced 

 and stamen-like in form. 



Among the other cycadaceous forms described the isolated 

 fruit, considered as representing the new genus Cycadocephalus, 

 is also of much interest. If, as Professor Nathorst believes, this 

 fossil consists in a series of basally adnate carpellary leaves, it is 

 certainly generically different from all other known cycadaceous 

 plants. But I am strongly of the opinion that it is a partially 

 expanded bisporangiate strobilus like that of Bennettites, and that 

 the elliptical bodies to be seen ranked along the sides of the 

 exposed sporophyll rachis, at several points, are simply large and 

 flattened pollen-bearing synangia. That a true Carpellary or 

 Seed-bearing Disk may have been borne by some extinct cyca- 

 daceous plant is indeed both possible and probable,' an opinion I 

 have emphasized before. But as yet it does not seem that we 

 have indisputable evidence of any such. As I have stated before, 

 I would rather regard Williamson's so-called carpellary disk as 

 staminate and not seed-bearing. The regularly arranged scars 

 which he doubtless saw on the rays or fronds of certain specimens 

 may better be considered to have been left by fugacious synan- 

 gia-bearing pinnules than by shed seeds. Whether the fronds in 

 the specimen described by Professor Nathorst are once pinnate 

 or not, is, 1 think, not disclosed. But I may add that by develop- 

 ing a bisporangiate Bennettitean strobilus from its matrix of 

 bracts I have found quite similar surface details. 



The discovery of " Antherangia " in the leafy crown constitu- 

 ting the type of Dioonites spectabilis " suggests the existence of 

 another class of Cycadophytes, — the Dioonitales." It would 

 seem possible that pollen might be found in some of the sporan- 

 gia, and it is much to be hoped that other material may be 

 secured illustrating this unique type oi fructification, g. r. w. 



7. A Flora of the South Fork of Kings River ; by Alice 

 Eastwood. 96 pp., 6 figs. Publ. No. 27, Sierra Mountain Club. 

 — Miss Eastwood's Flora of the South Fork of Kings River from 

 Millwood to the Headwaters of Bubbs Creek is the twenty- 

 seventh of a series of publications of the Sierra Club, an associa- 

 tion with the following admirable purposes : "to explore, enjoy, 

 and render accessible the mountain regions of the Pacific Coast ; 



