882 PROFESSOR A. C. SEWARD AND MISS N. BANCROFT ON 
Strobilites Millert sp. nov. (PI. I. fig. 13.) 
The fossil represented in fig. 13 is very obscurely preserved on a piece of limestone 
in the MiuEr collection, said to have been found at Helmsdale. Whether or not it 
was obtained actually at Helmsdale it is certain that the specimen is from the Upper 
Jurassic rocks of the Sutherland coast. It is associated with an impression of 
Sagenopteris Phillips: (Brongn.) and a few other plant fragments. MuLiEr’s fig. 156 
(Testuemony of the Rocks, p. 493) possibly represents this specimen, though it is far 
from accurate ; no description accompanies the illustration. 
A slender axis 8°5 cm. long bears numerous broadly oval bodies, 6 mm. long and 
5 mm. broad, which appear to be spirally disposed. These sessile appendages we 
believe to be seeds. Hach shows a more or less distinct differentiation into an inner 
portion limited by a slightly raised rim and an outer flat border which is much reduced 
in breadth at the apex. It may be that the inner portion is the impression of the hard 
woody shell of the seed, while the border represents a fleshy outer covering. Another 
possible interpretation is that each oval body is a seed in intimate association with 
a fertile bract. ‘The preservation is, unfortunately, very imperfect, and a careful 
examination of the specimen was necessary to enable the artist to produce the drawing ~ 
reproduced in fig. 13. It is but fair to add that Mr Brocr’s drawing is a faithful 
rendering of the original. 
Among previously described fossils bearing a fairly close resemblance to the 
Helmsdale species, some Rheetic specimens from Scania, described by NarHorst as 
Stachyotaxus elegans,* are worthy of special consideration. This Rheetic species is 
founded on shoots bearing two-ranked linear leaves very like those of Taaites Jeffrey, 
while on other shoots of the same plant the leaves are much smaller and more or less 
closely appressed, a combination of vegetative characters which finds a close parallel in 
some recent species of Dacrydiwm and Podocarpus. The fertile shoots of Stachyo- 
taxus reach a leneth of 12 cm. and bear spirally disposed bracts or carpellary leaves 
having two seeds, each of which is enclosed at the base by a cup-like cupule or 
epimatium. Natuorst thinks it probable that some of the bracts bore only one seed. 
He compares Stachyotaxus elegans and another species, S. septentrionalis (Agardh), 
with the recent species Podocarpus spicata, and believes that they are allied to 
Dacrydium. Miss Grpps,t in a recently published paper on the Podocarps, agrees 
with NarHorst’s view as to an affinity between Stachyotaxus and Dacrydium. A 
much more imperfect specimen from the Rhetic beds of Persia is referred by Scuunk} — 
to Stachyotaxus septentrionalis. 
A comparison of the Sutherland fossil with the female spike of Podocarpus 
spicata lends some support to the view that both Strobilites Millers and Stachyo- 
taxus are fertile shoots of conifers more closely allied to the Podocarpoideze than 
to any other existing conifers. 
* Naruorst (08), pl. i. + GrBps (12), p. 529. 
{ ScuEnk (87), p. 9, fig. 2. § PineEr (03), p. 66, fig. 11. 
