FOREST OF WYRE AND TITTERSTONB CLEE HILL COAL FIELDS. 1043 



union of the lower portions of the bracts, which surround the stem as a flat disc ; the 

 free portions of the bracts, to the number of twenty or more, extend outwards as 

 narrow lanceolate or linear-lanceolate sharp-pointed teeth, which, according to the 

 figure given by Weiss, are nearly 2 cm. long.* Where the teeth become free from 

 the sheath, they are separated by a small round bay or sinus. 



The fertile whorl, which is placed immediately beneath the sterile one, consists 

 of ten to twelve sporophylls which are also united to each other for about half their 

 length, and form a disc-like plate surrounding the stem. Their free portions have 

 truncate extremities which are again divided by a radial cleft that extends inwards 

 for about half their length. 



When their upper surface is exposed to view, each of these smaller divisions 

 shows a slight concentric furrow at its base, which marks off the two free terminal 

 portions from the undivided part of the sporophyll. When the lower surface of the 

 fertile whorl is exhibited, each of these smaller outer segments shows a small circular 

 depression, and, in a radial line immediately within them on the undivided part, two 

 other small depressions occur. These mark the points from which the sporangia 

 have been removed. Each fertile bract therefore bore four sporangia, an outer 

 concentric circle on the smaller lappets, and an inner circle lying within it on the 

 free, undivided portion of the sporophyll. 



The sporangia are large, subquadrate with rounded angles, about 5 mm. long and 

 3 mm. broad, and exhibit on their external surface very fine, slightly bending lines, 

 representing probably the cellular structure of the organ. According to Fischer, 

 the sterile and fertile whorls are united to each other, or, as he otherwise described 

 it, the fertile whorl may be inserted on the under side of the sterile whorl, t 



To illustrate more fully the structure of this cone a text-figure, taken from the 

 restoration given by Weiss, is inserted here (p. 1044), { which at a glance will show 

 the structural characters of the cone of Cingularia typica Weiss. 



Two specimens of Cingularia typica from Shropshire are figured here ; that at 

 fig. 1 shows portions of two imperfect cones. The sterile bracts are only recognisable 

 at one or two points, by the remains of their free lanceolate portions, and are seen 

 best at fig. la, a. These, however, are very rarely preserved. The sporophylls are 

 also imperfectly seen, and their margins are usually more or less fractured through 

 the cleft of the stone containing the specimen having passed irregularly through 

 them. The fragment of the cone on the right hand shows the axis well, on account 

 of the whorls having been mostly removed, and here it is clearly seen that the ribs 

 do not alternate at the nodes, but pass straight over them in their course up and 

 down the stem (fig. 16, a, a). 



The other specimen, given at fig. 2, exhibits a fertile whorl from a cone broken 



* Weiss, Steinkohl. Calamarien, Heft i, pi. vi, fig. 5. 



+ Mitt. d. Naturforschenden Gesell. in Bern, Jahrg. 1893, p. 5. 



| Steinkohl. Calamarien, Heft i, pi. ix, figs. 3, 4, and 6. 



