LEPIDOPHLOIOS, AND ON THE BRITISH SPECIES OF THE GENUS. 543 



of very great size, remarkable for the immense thickness of the axis, are classed by 

 Lesquereux with Lepidophloios. Weiss also has described a similarly colossal cone 

 of Lomatophloios macrolepidotus, but unfortunately there is no detailed account of it. 

 The enormous size of the axis in these specimens gives rise to the suspicion that the 

 fructification was not confined to special fertile shoots, but might occasionally appear on 

 the leaves even of the main stem, which then increased in thickness, much as we see in 

 the present day in the female flower of Cycas, and mutatis mutandis in Lycopodium 

 selago. We naturally ask, on what sort of scars could such cones be seated as lateral 



organs 



? 



I have quoted in full the above passage from Solms-Laubach, as it shows how a 

 mistake may become more deeply imbedded in the literature of a subject. Though 

 admitting the difficulties that lie in the way of accepting as the cones of Lepidophloios 

 the specimens described by Weiss and Lesquereux, he tries to explain them away 

 without any satisfactory data to support the suggested escape from the improbabilities of 

 the case. 



Firstly, we must remember here that the specimen with a very thick axis which 

 Weiss originally classed as the cone of Lomatophloios has been conclusively shown by 

 Mr Seward to be a stem, and apparently upon the mistaken support derived from this 

 specimen (for he states none other), Weiss places a large piece of the bark of Lomato- 

 phloios macrolepidotus into the genus Lepidostrobus* When the evidence on which 

 Weiss acted has been shown to be utterly erroneous, the whole theory falls to the ground. 

 There is then no evidence whatever that the cones of Lepidophloios had a very thick axis ; 

 on the contrary, the only ones which have been attached to their parent stems, and 

 consequently the only specimens that can be referred with certainty to Lepidophloios, 

 have a comparatively slender axis.t Solms-Laubach, apparently accepting the erroneous 

 conclusion arrived at by Weiss, remarks, " that the enormous size of the axis in these 

 specimens gives rise to a suspicion that the fructification was not confined to special 

 fertile shoots, but might occasionally appear on the leaves even of the main stem, which 

 then increased in thickness." 



When it has been shown that these supposed enormous cones are actually stems, and 

 have no direct connection whatever with the fructification, the difficulty as to the " sort 

 of scars " that could bear cones of such size — with the disappearance of the cones them- 

 selves — melts away. 



Grand' Eury gives a most interesting specimen of Lepidophloios, which he refers to 

 Lepidophloios laricinus.\ This example shows a portion of a stem from which are seen 

 to spring four small branch-like structures. One of these is flattened on the surface of 

 the stem, and does not show well its structure, but the other three project past the 

 margin of the fossil and are clearly exhibited. These are regarded by Grand' Eury as 



* Weiss, Aus d. Steink , 2nd ed., 1881, p. 8, pi. v. fig. 33. 



t Macfarlane, Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. xiv. pi. viii. fig. 1. 



X G4ol. et palebnt. d. bassin houil. du Gard., p. 234, pi. vi. fig. 17, 1890. 



