LEPIDOSTROBUS. 



39 



specimens, none of which were so perfect as that of Dr. Brown's, which exhibited the 

 sporangia of the upper part of the cone, full of microspores, and attached to the central 

 column, as well as the form of the microspores themselves. Both these authors came to 

 the same conclusion from independent specimens — Dr. Brown from one in a perfect state 

 of preservation, so far as the upper portion of the cone was concerned, and Dr. Hooker 

 from several imperfect specimens, taking a little from one and a little from another. But 

 neither of these observers was so fortunate as to see the lower part of Lepidostrohus con- 

 taining sporangia with spores in them. 



§ 12. {Hooker). — The genus Lepidostrohus has long been considered the fructification 

 of Lepidodendron. This must of necessity have been the case as soon as Lepidodendron 

 was supposed to be allied to Lycopodium by M. Brongniart and Dr. Lindley. 



Dr. Hooker, in his excellent memoir on Lepidostrohus, published in the ' Memoirs of 

 the Geological Society,^ ^ notices numerous specimens of Lepidostrohus in the insides of 

 stems of Lepidodendron Harcourtii and L. elegans. He says, at page 451, " The two 

 cones from which the above general views have been deduced are apparently from different 

 species, and I shall therefore characterise them as such. Further, as they seem to have 

 belonged to the fossil Lepidodendron enclosing them, I shall for the future notice them as 

 really the fruit of that genus." He then describes the cone of Lepidodendron elegans as 

 slender, three quarters of an inch in diameter, four to ten inches long, with sporangia 

 eight in a whorl ; and the cone of Z. Harcourtii (?) as broad, one inch and a half in 

 diameter, with sporangia about sixteen in a whorl. He observes, " The -most positive 

 evidence that can be adduced of Lepndostrohi being a genus allied to Lycopodium is 

 afforded by the spores, the presence of wdiich not only removes them from Cycadece, 

 Conifera, or any other order of flowering plants, but directly refers them to the family of 

 Lycopodiacecs and [not to ?] Coniferce. In both \Lepidostrohus and Lycojmdiumi the 

 original spore divides into three or nearly [rarely ?] four sporules, which are angular, and 

 form the reproductive system of the plant. Not only do these groups coincide in the 

 essential characters of their spores, but in many minor points the strongest similarity 

 exists between them. The arrangement of the scales is the same in both, and so are the 

 scales themselves in general features, especially towards their dilated apices. The situa- 

 tion of the sporangia, too, is alike, and their attachment by a very narrow surface to the 

 scale." 



§ 13. {Carrutliers). — J¥r. Carruthers, speaking Q>i Lepidodendron, says,- "The fruit 

 was a strobilus (pi. Ivi, fig. 3) formed from a shortened branch, the leaves of which are 

 converted into scales, that support on their upper surface a single large sporangium 



1 Vol. ii, part 2, 1848. 



^ "On the Structure and Affinities of Lepidodendron and Calamites," ' Journ. Botan.' vol. xiii, 

 pp. 6 and 7. 



