1076_ 
DE. TTTTRE, ON THE EOSSIL ELOEA OE BOVET TEACET. 
J. D. Hooker, “ On some small Seed-vessels from the Bovey Tracey Coal,” Quart. 
Joiu’n. Geol. Soc. Lond. for Nov. 1855, p. 566, pi. 17. 
Unger, Sylloge Plant. Fossil, p. 17, pi. 7. figs. 10-23. 
HijQ^po'pha'e dis^erma, Ludwig in Palseontogr. viii. p, 112, pi. 43. figs. 14-18 & 20. 
Not rare in the 54th bed; very rare in the rhizome-bed. 
The fruits of Bovey agree so perfectly with those of Kaltennordheim, of Eochette, 
&c., that they must be referred to that species. Geologically they are of great import- 
ance, as they have such a wide range in the Miocene formation ; it is hence the more to 
be regretted that their systematic position remains stiU very doubtful, and that it has 
even not yet been shown whether these small bodies, which can so easily be distin- 
guished by their characteristic form and structure, are fruits or seeds. Most authors 
(Bkongniaet, Zenkee, Beonn, and Hookee) consider them to be fruits, while Uxgee 
(Sylloge, p. 18) declared recently that they must be seeds, referring to the seeds 
of coniferous trees : as such I considered them formerly, when I described them 
(though granting the doubts concerning their character) as Pinus rhahdosperma. In all 
those specimens which I had then seen, the pecuhar constricted volva was not distinct ; 
but it is also wanting in all the seeds of conifers which I know, as is also the prominent 
edge and the sculptui’e. More probably they are comparable with the seeds of Samyda, 
which have such a volva, and which agree besides pretty well in respect to their form ; 
but then we must bear in mind that the organs in question are hgneous, that they are 
dehiscent by a longitudinal fissure, and that such facts are much against an interpreta- 
tion as seeds, though in favour of the hypothesis that they might have had the organiza- 
tion of a Euit. 
Hookee supposed them to be cryptogamic fruits, although he was not able to point 
out an analogy amongst the cryptogamic plants. He maintains this view by stating 
that in the interior of the fruit a delicate sac is frequently found, which he considers 
to be a sporangium. This interpretation seems to me not quite correct ; the sac seems 
to result from the testa of the seeds. The dotted and the spiral fibrous cells covering 
the interior of the cavity are much more in favour of a phanerogamic than of a crj'p- 
togamic plant ; and in respect of the sac remaining in the interior of the cavity, we 
know exactly the same organization in cherry-stones which have lain for a long time in 
water or in wet places, I opened a good many cherry-stones from the ‘ Pfahlbauten ’ 
of Eobenhausen; in all, without exception, the seed had disappeared (although the 
shell was left intact), and in its stead a dehcate sac remained, which lay close to the 
interior surface of the stone, and which could easily be removed. A perfect dissolution 
of the kernel had taken place, and only the testa remained. The organic contents of the 
seed must hence have become dissolved, and escaped, in a remarkable manner, through 
both the testa and the putamen, that no traces of them were left in the cavity of the 
cherry-stone. Only the ligneous cells of the stone and the testa resisted and were pre- 
served. In the same manner, without doubt, we must account for the existence of the 
sac of Carpolithes Webster, i. Sometimes an inorganic substance has been deposited in 
