IX. Some further investigation of Fossil Seeds of the 

 genus Lagenostoma (Williamson) from the Lower 

 Coal Measures, Oldham. 



By John Butterworth, F.R.M.S. 

 Received February 17th, 1897. Read February 23rd, 1897. 



[Communicated by Mr. John Boyd.] 



In studying the remains of the plants that compose 

 our coal seams it is as well to bear in mind that the 

 names given to many of them are only provisional, and 

 often derived from their resemblance to some well-known 

 object. Such provisional names are convenient, as they 

 can be readily dropped or changed when the true history 

 and genus of the plant or fruit is known. Thus it is with 

 the seeds under consideration, which have been named 

 Lagenostoma by the late Professor W. C. Williamson, a 

 name derived from the peculiar bottle-shaped mouth 

 of the seed. Seeds of this genus run rather small in 

 dimensions, varying from i-ioth to i-4th of an inch in 

 length and 3-64ths to i-ioth in breadth; bat to give a 

 better idea of their character, as they have been known 

 up to the present, I exhibit a number of seeds, some of 

 which are detached from the matrix in which they have 

 been embedded, while others are still embedded but 

 ground to transparency. I am not prepared to enter into 

 any speculation as to the character of the tree or plant 

 which bore these seeds; but am disposed to believe that 



May 20th, 1897. 



