LEPIDOSTROBUS. 



53 



Scales or Bracts springing almost at right angles to the column, and supporting 

 Sporangia, full of Macrospores, one twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter, very similar in 

 their characters and state of preservation to those contained in the two specimens 

 described above. The apices of the Scales are both longer and stronger than those of 

 No. 21 and No. 22. The column is not so well exposed, and the lower portion is 

 covered up in the matrix of Blackband Ironstone, so that the connection of the Cone 

 with the associated stem, striated, knotted, and jointed, resembling a small Calamite, 

 cannot be traced, a quarter of an inch intervening. The occurrence of this stem 

 may be accidental, having no connection with the Cone, but the colunm of the latter, if 

 projected forwards, would run to the joint of the stem ; and as there are two specimens, 

 No. 27 and No. 30, connected with somewhat similar stems and containing Macrospores, 

 to be hereinafter described, it is possible that this Cone may have belonged to a dif- 

 ferent plant than those of No. 21 and No. 22. For this reason it has been designated 

 Lepidostrohus (?) diihins. 



Fig. 3 a (magnified five diameters) represents a portion of the column and two Scales 

 supporting two Sporangia, each containing three large Macrospores, with several smaller 

 ones ; the upper Sporangium has eight smaller ones, in two rows, and one by itself 

 at the end ; whilst the lower Sporangium contains eleven of the smaller Macrospores, in 

 five pairs, and one at the end. In all other respects the Sporangium and its Macrospores, 

 in their present state of preservation and contents, cannot be distinguished from those 

 previously described. The presence of the striated, jointed, and knotted stern, and the 

 different sizes and arrangement of the Macrospores, may be differences indicating that 

 this specimen is more allied to No. 27 and No. 30, hereinafter described, than to No. 21 

 and No. 22. As there is no evidence to show that the Scales were spirally arranged round 

 the column, it is possible that they may have had a verticillate arrangement, as in specimens 

 to be hereinafter described. 



§ 4. Specimen No. 24 ; Lepidostrohus tenuis, sp. nov. PI. IX, figs. 4, 4a. 



Specimen No. 24 (PI. IX, fig. 4, natural size) represents another imperfect com- 

 pressed Cone, two and two tenths of an inch long, six tenths of an inch broad, and having 

 a column about one fortieth of an inch thick. Both the upper and lower portions of the 

 Cone are wanting; but the whole of the specimen shows Scales or Bracts, supporting 

 elongate-oval Sporangia, containing Macrospores, one twenty-fifth of an inch in diameter, 

 in a similar condition to the specimens previously described. The only remarkable 

 feature in this specimen is the great delicacy of the Scales and Column, Avhich are 

 much less in size than in any of the other specimens. The apex of the scale also is more 

 divergent, and is not so parallel to the column as in No. 21. 



