42 



EOSSIL PLANTS. 



§ 17. GoJdenherg. — Dr. Goldenberg' describes and figures such spherical bodies, some 

 with the triradiate ridge, and others without that character, as the fruit of Sigillaria, 

 Stiymaria, and fossil Selaginea. These bodies, according to this author, appeared to be 

 attached to the scales of the cones, and not contained in a sporangium ; and in the figures 

 they appear chiefly at the base of the specimen. 



§ 18. Binnei/. — In 1864 a description of some spores of plants found in the sphnt 

 coals of Methel, Fifeshire, was given by myself to the Literary and Philosophical Society 

 of Manchester,' wherein it was stated that, when we consider the great abundance of these 

 small fossils in all splint coals, and the immense number of the roots of Sigillaria found in 

 the floors of such seams of coal, it is almost certain that they had some connection with 

 that plant. This tended to confirm M, Adolphe Brongniart's opinion, expressed many 

 years ago, that Sigillaria and Lepidodendron were plants very nearly allied to each 

 other, 



§ 19. Carruthers. — In October, 1865, Mr. Carruthers described' a fossil cone that had 

 been discovered by Mr. James Russell, of Chapelhall, Airdrie, a diligent -and intelligent 

 coflector of Carboniferous Possils, and which showed the bodies described by Professor 

 Morris, and noticed by myself and Dr. Balfour, as they occurred in the strobilus, and not 

 detached, as they had been observed by me and Dr. Balfour. Mr. Carruthers describes at 

 length the differences he considered to exist between Lepidostrobus and his new genus 

 Flemingites. The two genera are thus contrasted (p. 438) : 



" Lejndostrobus. — Each scale of the cone supporting a single oblong sporangium, 

 " Flemingites. — Each scale of the cone supporting a double series of roundish 

 sporangia. 



" F. gracilis. — Cone slender, cylindrical, very slightly tapering at the base, composed 

 of a solid axis and numerous imbricated scales, ten in a whorl. The apex of the scale long 

 and slender. Sporangia attached by a tri-radiate ridge." 



§ 20. Brongniart. — M. Adolphe Brongniart in a notice, " Sur un fruit de Lycopo- 

 diacees fossiles,'' in the ' Comptes Rendus' for August, 1868, gives a description of a cone 

 very similar in its upper portion to that described by Dr. Robert Brown, which he names 

 Triplosporites Brownii {Lejndostrobics Broionii, Carruthers). 



This specimen shows sporangia containing microspores in the upper part of the 

 cone, exactly like those in Dr. Brown's specimen ; whilst in the lower portion of the same 



1 ' Flora Sarsepontana fossilis ;' plate b, figs. 18 to 25 (1855) ; plate x, figs. 1 and 2 (1857). 

 - 'Proceedings of the Literary and Philosophical Society of Manchester,' vol. iv, (for 1864), 

 p. 45. 



•" " On an Undescribed Cone from the Carboniferous Beds of Airdrie, Lanarkshire," by W. Carruthers, 

 F.L.S., of the British Museum ; ' Geological Magazine,' vol. ii (No. xvi, October, 1865), pp. 433, &c. 



