FOREST OF WYRE AND TITTERSTONE CLEE HILL COAL FIELDS. 1061 



Description. — Seed attaining a size of 1 cm. in diameter, sub-circular or oval, some- 

 times bluntly pointed at apex, more rarely at base, occasionally surrounded by a narrow 

 false wing. Surface smooth. Epidermis formed of thick- walled hexagonal cells. 



Remarks. — Carpolithes membranaceus Gopp. has been united with Carpolithes 

 (Rhabdocarjyus) ovoideus Gopp. and Berger * by Weiss, t and this course, which was 

 followed by most palseobotanists, I also previously adopted. Recently, however, when 

 examining some additional specimens, I have been led to believe that Carpolithes 

 membranaceus must be treated as specifically distinct from Carpolithes ovoideus 

 Gopp. and Berger sp. In both of the descriptions of Carpolithes (Rhab do carpus) 

 ovoideus, it is stated distinctly that the seed possesses " nerves." In the Permian 

 Flora, Goppert gives the following diagnosis : " Seed ovate, rounded unequally on all 

 sides, pericarp with numerous equal veins extending from base towards the apex " ; 

 whereas Carpolithes membranaceus is : " Capsule elliptical, smooth, compressed, seed 

 similar to the capsule." The essential difference between the two seeds, is the 

 presence of the "nerves" which are most probably sclerenchymatous fibres in the 

 pericarp in the one, and their absence in the other. The union of the two seeds 

 under one name does not therefore seem to be justified. 



According to this view, none of the seeds included under Rhabdocarpus (?) ovoideus 

 by Weiss belong to Carpolithes ovoideus Gopp. and Berger sp., for though he refers 

 to folds and furrows, these are the result of crumpling or of deformation through 

 pressure, and he nowhere refers to sclerenchymatous fibres in the pericarp {nerves)^ 

 whose presence is a distinctive character of many fossil seeds. I believe that the 

 specimens figured by Weiss should mostly be referred to Carpolithes membranaceus 

 Gopp., which as already stated he unites with C. ovoideus Gopp. and Berger. 



The seeds seem to have had an outer, probably thin, fleshy pericarp and, when 

 subject to pressure, vary in their outer form. Occasionally they are almost circular, 

 as seen in one of Goppert's figures,! but frequently they are more or less oval. 

 Some show a narrow marginal band, but this is merely the soft and flattened pericarp 

 projecting beyond the nucule, not a wing in the true sense of the term.§ I am now 

 satisfied that many specimens figured and described by myself and others under the 

 name of Cordaicarpus Cordai belong to Carpolithes membranaceus Gopp. 



From "mummified" fragments of the epidermis, Goppert was enabled to figure 

 and describe the thick-walled hexagonal cells of which it is composed,|| and a small 

 portion of the epidermis of a specimen which has been subjected to the maceration 

 process is given here at text-figure 6. 



At PI. V, figs. 8,9, some seeds are shown natural size to illustrate their varying 

 forms. 



* Fruct. et semim., p. 22, pi. i, fig. 17, 1848. t Foss. Flora d.jungst. Stk u. Rothl, p. 206. 



| Foss. Flora perm. Form., pi. xxix, fig. 19. 



§ See Kidston, Cordaicarpus Cordai (non Geinitz), " Foss. Plants, Canonbie, etc.," Trans. Boy. Hoc. Edm., vol. xl, 

 pi. i, figs. 12, 13. 



|| Gopp. in Berger, Fructibus, etc., pi. ii, fig. 206. 



