128 DR ROBERT KIDSTON ON THE 



a few are complete. On the exposed surface of the cones three groups of sporangia 

 are frequently visible, and probably the fertile whorls contained six sporangiophores. 

 In any case, their number must have been small. 



Some of the cones are enlarged 2 times at figs, la to \c to show their general 

 character. 



Horizon and Locality. — Between Fireclay Coal and Bottom Coal: Doulton's 

 Clay Pit, Netherton, near Dudley. (K. No. 4476.) 



Huttonia Sternberg. 



Huttonia spicata Sternb. 

 PL XL fig. 4, PL XIV. fig. 4. 



1837. Huttonia spicata, Sternb., Verhandl. d. Gesellsch. d. vaterl. Museums, Bbhmen, 1837, p. 69, pi. i. 



figs. 1-4 {fide Jongmans). 

 Andrae, in Germar, Vers. v. Wettin u. Lobejun, p. 91, pi. xxvii. fig. 4. 

 Feistmantel, Abhandl. d. k. bohm. Gesell. d. Wissensch., vi. Folge, vol. v. p. 7, 



pi. i. fig. 1 (" Ueber Fruchtstadien fossiler Pflanzen aus der bb'hmischen 



Steinkohlenformation "). 

 Feistmantel, Vers. d. bohm. Ablager, Heft i. p. 113, pi. viii. fig. 3. 

 Weiss, Steinkohl. Calamarien, part i. p. 82, pi. xiii. figs. 3, 4 ; pi. xiv. figs. 1-4. 

 Schenk, in Richthofen, China, p. 234, pi. xli. figs. 1-3. 

 Weiss, Steinkohl. Calamarien, part ii. p. 188, pi. xxi. fig. 9. 

 Jongmans, Anleitung, vol. i. p. 352, figs. 320-324. 



Description. — Cones with short unjointed stems, leafless, bracts with a small base, 

 enlarging upwards and ending in a suddenly contracted long sharp point, the sides of 

 which are convex, 18 to 20 in a whorl, with outer surface longitudinally striated. The 

 bracts of the lowest whorls are smaller and more truly lanceolate. Bracts free to the 

 base ; and situated below them is a pendulous sheath. The sporaDgiophores spring 

 from the axils of the bracts and are directed outwards. 



Remarks. — The specimen is shown natural size at PL XI. fig. 4, and a portion 

 enlarged 2 times at PL XIV. fig. 4. This latter figure shows well at the broken- 

 over upper end the narrowed basal portion of the bracts, whose upper surface is 

 longitudinally striated. The fossil is only a small part of the cone, of which I am not 

 aware that a complete example has ever been discovered. It is extremely rare to find 

 the bracts complete, the upper portion being almost always broken off, as in our 

 solitary example from South Staffordshire. The internodes are short, about 4'50 mm. 

 long, and the bracts, which appear to have been almost coreaceous, show no indication 

 of a midrib. This, which is the first record of Huttonia spicata for Britain that has 

 come under my notice, was collected by Mr H. W. Hughes, F.G.S., to whom I am 

 so much indebted for my knowledge of the fossil plants of the South Staffordshire 

 Coal Field. 



Horizon and Locality. — Blue Measures, six feet above Fireclay Coal : Doulton's 

 Clay Pit, Netherton, near Dudley. 



1851. 



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1875. 



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1876. 



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