;U8 KIDSTON : THE FLORA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 
I^pidophloios Sternberg. Plants of arborescent growth with 
dichotomous ramification (Lepidophloios Scoticus Kidston, Plate 
LV., fig. 1). Stem and branches bearing well-developed scale-like 
leaf-cushions, at or near whose summit is placed the leaf-scar. Leaf- 
cushions imbricated, pedicel-like (Plate LV., fig. 2), upright or de- 
flexed, exposed portion with slightly curved or straight sides, or 
rhomboidal in outline (Lepidophloios laricinus Sternbg., Plate LYL, 
fig. 2), smooth or keeled, sometimes provided with a small tubercle 
immediately beneath the leaf-scar. Leaf-scars rhomboidal or 
rhomboidal elongate, with lateral 
angles rounded or acute. Within 
the leaf-scar are three puncti- 
form cicatricules, of which the 
central is the vascular scar. Sub- 
cortical cicatrice single. 
The fructification is borne 
on specialised branches, and con- 
sists of caducous stalked cones 
arranged in several spirals (Plate 
LV., fig. 3). 
Lepidophloios is not nearly 
so common as Lepidodendron, 
and is easily distinguished from 
that genus by the form of the 
cushion and the position of the 
leaf-scar, which is always at the 
upper end of the pedicel-like cushion, though when the cushion 
becomes deflexed the leaf-scar appears as if placed at the base, Text 
Fig. 3. The exposed portion of cushion and leaf-scar combined is 
generally of rhomboidal form (Plate LVL, fig. 2). 
The mode of fructification is also very different from that of 
Lepidodendron. The cones (Lepidostrobus) are always developed in 
several spiral series ; they are stalked, but the stalks as well as the 
cones are deciduous, and on falling leave a circle of deflexed leaf- 
cusliions with a small central point (Plate LV.. figs. 1 and 2). 
Decorticated examples of fruiting branches of Lepidophloios 
« b 
Fig. 3. — a, Lepidophloios Scoticus 
Kidston, natural size; b, cushion 
and leaf-soar, enlarged (No. 529) ; 
c, Lepidophloios acerosus L. and 
H. sp. , cushion and leaf-scar, 
enlarged. (No. 768.) 
