FOSSIL FLORA OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE COAL FIELDS. 327 



Lepidostrobus, Brongt. 

 Lepidostrobus variabilis, L. & H. 



Horizon : — At a depth of 533 yards. 



Sigillaria, Brongt. 

 Sigillaria reniformis, Brongt., fig. 11. 



Sigillaria reniformis, Brongt., Hist. d. veget. foss., p. 470, pi. cxlii. 



Sigillaria reniformis, Goldenberg., Flora Sarcep. foss., Heft ii. p. 50, pi. viii. fig. 31. 



Sigillaria reniformis, Sauveur, Veget. foss. de la Belgique, pi. 1. fig. 1. 



Sigillaria reniformis, Zeiller, Flore foss. d. bassin houiller de Valenciennes, pi. lxxxiv. figs. 4-6. 



Sigillaria cactiformis, Goldenberg, Flora Saraep.foss., Heft i. p. 26, pi. iv. fig. 1. 



Description. — Kibs wide, straight, smooth. Leaf scars reniform, approximate or dis- 

 tant, lateral angles distinct but not prominent. Vascular cicatricules ; the two lateral 

 lunate, central punctiform. Above the scar is occasionally a small cicatricule, and between 

 each scar is a transverse line. Decorticated stem longitudinally striate ; cicatricules 

 geminate, the two parts oval, united with each other or separate, varying much in shape 

 with age. 



Remarks. — The small specimen figured shows considerable difference in the size of the 

 leaf scars and their relative distance apart. Towards the centre of the specimen the leaf 

 scars are smaller than those both above and below them, and the scars on the lower part 

 of the specimen are much closer together than those at the top of the fossil. 



From the peculiar condition in which this specimen has been preserved, the sub- 

 cortical cicatricules are discernible through the bark, as distinctly defined oval elevations, 

 which are visible in most of the leaf scars. One of these scars enlarged at fig. 11a 

 shows this clearly. Fig. 116 gives the normal condition of the outer surface of the 

 leaf scar, and is a reproduction of fig. 11a, with the subcortical cicatricules omitted. 

 From this specimen is learnt the position held by the lateral cicatricules of the leaf scar 

 to its germinate cicatricules of the decorticated stem. 



Had any evidence been necessary to prove that the genus Syringodendron, Stern- 

 berg, was only a decorticated condition of Sigillaria, such evidence is afforded by the 

 specimen now figured. 



Sigillaria reniformis, Brongt., is easily distinguished from Sigillaria Sauveuri, 

 Zeiller,* by the presence in the former species of a notch on the upper margin of the leaf 

 scar, and the absence of the transverse wrinkling below the scars. 



In regard to the function performed by these lateral lunate cicatricules, as exhibited 

 on the outer surface of the leaf scars, there is every reason to believe that they are the 



* Zeiller, Flore foss. d. bassin houiller de Valenciennes, p. 559, pi. lxxxiv. figs. 1-3. 



