536 MR ROBERT KIDSTON ON 
this conclusion after a very careful examination of the specimen which was collected 
by the late Mr G. Wixp, and sent to me for identification by Mr James Lomax, into 
whose possession it had come. 
The following are my reasons for adopting the opinion that the more probable 
systematic position of this fossil is with the Ulodendroid Sigillarize :— 
I. The only carboniferous genera possessing biseriate cone scars, which have been 
definitely identified from the presence of leaf scars on their bark, are Lepidodendron, 
Sigillaria (Ulodendroid section), and Bothrodendron. 
II. The specimen under discussion differs from the biserial Lepidodendra in the 
closely placed cone scars, and from Bothrodendron (B. punetatum, L. & H.) in the cone 
scars possessing a central vascular cicatrice, which in Bothrodendron is eccentric. 
III. That in the position of the cone scars and their vascular cicatrices, and the 
distance arrangement of the leaf vascular cicatrices, it agrees entirely with specimens of 
Sigilaria discophora, Konig, sp.* (= Ulodendron minus, L. & H., sp.), when partially 
decorticated. 
IV. That every Halonial (fruiting) branch of Lepidophloios which has shown the 
leaf scars, and so admitted of an undoubted identification, has had more than two rows 
of cone scars on the fully developed fruiting portion, and these are spirally arranged. 
V. Dr Hoyts, Director of the Manchester Museum, has very kindly sent me for 
examination the specimen figured by Professor Weiss on his pl. xxii. figs. 2, 3. In 
comparing these figures with fig. 1 of the same plate, it should be remembered that 
fig. 1 is natural size, and that figures 2, 3 are only 2 natural size. 
With the exception of a few places, the outer bark is removed from the Manchester 
Museum specimen (Weiss, l.c., figs. 2, 3), and what remains is converted into bright 
coal. These coaly patches have the appearance of downward imbricating scales or | 
cushions, but what their real structure has been cannot be clearly made out. Their 
lower ends are terminated by a fracture, and no leaf scars are shown. 
The upper part of the fossil shows the two stumps of a bifurcation. On fruiting 
branches of Lepidophloios (Haloma) the fructification is frequently borne on the two 
forks of the stem immediately above the bifurcation. Below the fork the fructification 
sometimes begins as a single or double row, but when it extends to the forks the true 
multispiral arrangement is developed. This was pointed out many years ago by Dr 
(now Professor) J. M. MacrarLane.t 
The part represented by the specimen in the Manchester Museum may very prob- 
ably represent a similar condition to that described and figured by Professor MacraRLaNg, 
but as the two arms of the dichotomy are broken over on the example figured by Professor 
Weiss, the true spiral series which would naturally have occurred on the two arms is 
wanting. Had only a similar portion of Dr Macrar.ane’s specimen been preserved, there 
would have been here a so-called “ biseriate” Halonia, but that term cannot be applied, 
* Konia, Icones fosstlium sectiles., London, pl. xvi. fig. 194. 
+ Trans. Bot. Soc. Edin., vol. xiv. pp. 186, 190, pl. vii. 
