42 MR ROBERT KIDSTON ON 



Fructification. 



Goldenberg was the first to refer to Sigillaria, as its fructifications contain cones 

 which he found associated with their stems. These he described in his " Flora 

 Sarsepontana Fossilis" in Heft. i. (1855) and Heft. ii. (1857). The cone he figures on 

 pi. x. fig. 1 lie thought might belong to Sigillaria tessellata, and that on pi. x. fig. 2 

 to Sigillaria intermedia ; and for these fructifications Schimper founded the genus 

 Sigillariostrobus.* Some other portions of Sigillarian cones are shown by Goldenberg 

 od his pi. b figs. 18-25, and pi. iv. fig. 3 (p. 1, Heft. ii.). 



The specimens figured by Goldenberg consisted of fragments : that given on pi. b 

 fig. 18 exhibits a portion of a cone, some of the bracts of which have been removed, 

 causing the thick axis to be seen. Figs. 19-25 show the more minute details of the 

 structure of the bracts, but one cannot learn from them any accurate knowledge as to 

 the structure or position of the sporangia. 



The figure on pi. iv. fig. 3 shows the basal part of a cone with a portion of its sup- 

 porting pedicel. Remains of two grass-like leaves lie on each side of the specimen, and 

 are probably the remains of the foliage of the parent plant. 



The specimens given on pi. x. figs. 1-2 show the upper portions of the cones. 

 Enlarged drawings of the lanceolate bracts, with their rhomboidal expanded base, on 

 which the spores are seen, are added. When these cones were referred to the Sigillaria; 

 the only ground for the assumption was their association with Sigillarian stems — quite 

 insufficient data for such important conclusions ; and for thirty years their systematic 

 position remained uncertain, till, in 1884, Mons. Zeiller announced the discovery of 

 specimens agreeing with the cones referred to Sigillaria by Goldenberg, on the 

 pedicel of one of which the Sigillarian leaf-scars were seen. 



This discovery confirmed the conclusions arrived at by Goldenberg as to his cones 

 being the fructification of Sigillaria^ 



In 1884 Zeiller gave a preliminary description of these interesting specimens, in 

 which he says : — " It is impossible to discover any trace of a sporangium in which the 

 macrospores were contained ; the position which they occupy, grouped most frequently 

 at the base of each bract, only permit it to be supposed, with considerable probability, 

 that they had been inclosed in the fold which is present in the wedge-shaped basal 

 puii ion of the bract, and covered by a tissue, from whose destruction they had been set 

 free, similar to what occurs to-day in Isoetes. The affinity indicated by Goldenberg 

 (that the Sigillaria were an arborescent form of Isoetes\) appears to me, then, well 

 founded." £ 



* Trait4d. pateont. v4g&. f vol. ii. p. Iu5, pi. lxvii. flga. 12-24, 1870. 



+ Fkistmantel, in 1876, under the name of Siyillariostrobus Golde7ibcryi, appears to include all the Sigillarian 

 described by GoLDENBEBG, but the accuracy of this course is open to serious doubt. Vers. d. bohmischen 

 i-Ablager, iii. Abth. p. 31, Cassel, 1876. 



* Goldenberg, Flora Sarcepont. foss., Heft. i. p. 25. 

 S Cowplet rendvs, 3<>tli June 1884. 



