FOSSIL FLORA OF THE STAFFORDSHIRE COAL FIELDS. 169 



I can remember, all the specimens I have previously seen and all the descriptions and 

 figures of Whittleseya elegans give the leaf as flat, but this one, preserved in an 

 ironstone nodule and free from the pressure which usually brings about a flattening 

 of the specimen when preserved in shale, shows the ridge quite distinctly, as seen on 

 PI. XV. fig. 11. The differences in general structure between the leaf of Whittleseya 

 elegans and the fertile scales described here do not, then, seem greater than would be 

 expected to occur between the sterile leaf and one modified for the purpose of fructi- 

 fication, and it may be remarked that, though these fertile scales were met with in 

 tolerable plenty, they occurred only within a limited and comparatively small area 

 of the bed. Their horizontal distribution was very restricted. The same circumstances 

 were present in regard to the fertile examples of Neuropteris heterophylla Brongt. 

 when the seeds were found, and to the microsporangial specimens of Crossotheca 

 (Sphenopteris) Honinghausi Brongt., sp., and in each of these cases the fertile 

 specimens may have been derived from a small number or even a single individual 

 plant of the species. 



If, then, I am correct in referring these fertile scales to Whittleseya, for which 

 course there seems to be a fair amount of evidence, the affinities of that genus would 

 point to the Cycadacese rather than to Ginkgo, to which there seems to be a too ready 

 reference of almost all the Palaeozoic Gymnosperms as ancestral forms. Affinities can 

 rarely be safely traced on vegetative conditions of a species. 



All the examples figured here have been collected by Mr H. W. Hughes, F.G.S. 



Horizon and Locality. — Ten -foot Ironstone Measures: Clayscroft Openwork, 

 Coseley, near Dudley. 



Dicranophyllum Grand'Eury. 



1874. Dicranophyllum, Grand'Eury, Compt.es rendus Acad. Sc, vol. Ixxx. p. 1021. 

 1877. ,, Grand'Eury, Flore carbon, d. dept. de la Loire, p. 272. 



Description. — Stem ligneous and ramifying irregularly and sparsely. Leaves 

 linear, decurrent, expanding at the base, dividing dichotomously into two or more 

 linear lobes, which terminate in a point more or less sharp. Nerves parallel to the 

 margins of the leaves and dividing by dichotomy. Leaves spirally placed, very 

 numerous, bases contiguous and attached by a vertically elongated rhomboidal cushion ; 

 erect at the extremities of the branches, spreading on the more aged branches, and on 

 old stems spring out at right angles or even bent downwards. 



Male flowers consisting of small scaly ovoid cones placed in the axils of the leaves 

 and formed of lanceolate, coriaceous scales with a prominent dorsal keel, their 

 extremities so prolonged at the summit that the cone appears to end in a hirsute tuft. 

 Microsporangia attached to the enlarged summit of the sporangiophore.* 



Seed small, ovoid, apparently attached in two rows, one on each side of the lower 

 and undivided portion of the leaf, which above the fertile region dichotomises once. 



* Dicranophyllum robustum, Zeiller, Bull. Sue. ge'ol. de France, 3 e ser., vol. vi. p. 613, pi. x. fig. 3, 1878. 

 TRAJSTS. ROY. SOC. EDIN., VOL. I,. PART I. (NO. 5). 22 



