KIDSTON : THE FLORA OF THE CARBONIFEROUS PERIOD. 351 
elongated, rhomboidal cushions (Plate LIV., fig. 2), near whose 
centre is placed the small leaf-scar. As growth proceeds, and at 
an early period, these cushions become entirely effaced, and the leaf- 
scars are carried more widely apart (Plate LIV., fig. 1 at a, and 
fig. 3). Small twigs showing the cushions might easily be mistaken 
for young branchlets of Lepidodendron. 
Of two species the mode of fructification is known. In Bothro- 
dendron minuti folium it consists of long slender cones (Plate LIX., 
fig. 2), with bracts arranged either in close whorls or very gentle spirals, 
but which I cannot at present deter- 
mine. These slender cones terminate 
small branchlets. In the other 
species, Bothrodendron pundatum 
L. and H., the fructification consists 
of sessile cones borne in two vertical 
rows which gave rise to cup-like 
depressions on the stem in a similar 
manner to that pointed out when 
speaking of the fructification of the 
Ulodendroid section of Lepidoden- 
dron. These fruiting portions of 
Bothrodendron can, however, even 
when decorticated, be easily dis- 
tinguished from the corresponding 
state of Lepidodendron by the posi- 
tion of the umbilicus of the cone 
scar. In Lepidodendron it is always 
central, in Bothrodendron it is eccen- 
tric and always placed near the 
lower margin of the cup-like depression. 
The leaves of Bothrodendron minutif olium and Bothrodendron 
pundatum, the only two Carboniferous species of which the foliage 
is known, are small, single-nerved, and broadly lanceolate. 
The internal structure of the stem is unknown. 
The genus is represented both in the Upper and Lower Carbon- 
iferous, but is very rare in the latter division. 
A 
c 
Fig. 7. — Sigi/Zaria Brardii Brongt. 
Cope's Marl Pit, Longton, Staf- 
fordshire. Shale above Peacock 
coal, Middle Coal Measures. A, 
Leaf cushion (a). Leaf scar (/>) ; 
c, cicatricule of vascular bundle ; 
d d, parichnos ; enlarged. (No 
817.) 
