OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
261 
they belong to the genus Cardiocarpon ; but this cannot be determined at present ; 
hence I leave them provisionally with the name which Dr. Dawson has assigned 
to them. 
The only seeds which remain to be noticed are the two represented by figs. 135, 
136, & 137. These are from a bed of fossiliferous red shale which I discovered in 1837 * 
near the top of the Ardwick beds at Manchester. These deposits correspond to 
the Limestones of Lebotwood, in Shropshire, and constitute the uppermost of the Car- 
boniferous beds occurring in this country. The shale abounds in plants (including 
Neuropteris cordata, the fern so characteristic of the uppermost of the Carboniferous 
strata), in Lepidodendra, and in Asteropliyllites. 
Fig. 135 represents one of these seeds of its natural size. 
Fig. 136 is the same specimen, enlarged four diameters ; and fig. 137 is another seed, 
from the same slab of shale, also enlarged four diameters. Both these specimens are 
imperfect ; but the seed has obviously been a somewhat winged one, thin, compressed, 
and leaf-like in structure. The rounded leaf-like apex is best seen in fig. 137, whilst 
the thin membranous base is better seen in fig. 136. The median surface of each 
seed is characterized by a series of elevated irregularly branched ridges. According to 
M. Grand’Eury, these seeds belong to the genus Polypterocarpus , and closely resemble the 
P. caudatus found in the French Coal-measures. This latter is a double seed, resem- 
bling in its form the samara of an ash. My two portions being found very near to each 
other upon the same slab of shale, it is quite possible that the base (i) of fig. 137 may 
have been broken off from the part i in fig. 136, the two being portions of one seed. 
The descriptions and figures which I have here given of such seeds as I have been able 
to obtain from our British Carboniferous rocks will suffice to show how close is the 
resemblance of the types which prevail here to those described by M. Brongniart from 
the French rocks of the same formation ; but there is one remarkable difference. With 
us the seeds are all of small size, excepting in the case of Trigonocarpon and Hexaptero- 
spermum, whereas the St.-Etienne specimens are mostly of large dimensions. I am 
indebted to my friend M. Grand’Eury for a valuable series of these latter specimens, 
and am struck with the contrast, in this respect, between his examples and mine. 
I will not venture at present upon any speculations respecting the affinities of these 
seeds, further than to say that they must have belonged to Phanerogamic plants, and 
that the more they are studied, the more nearly they seem to approach to those of the 
gymnospermous type of organization ; at the same time they show but few exact 
affinities with any known seeds. How far they may ultimately be found to resemble the 
fertilized ovules of the Cycads, as M. Brongniart’s last communication made to the 
Academy of Sciences f seems to suggest, time and further study alone can show. Still 
* “ On the Limestones found in the vicinity of Manchester,” Phil. Mag. ser. 3, xi. When this shale was 
discovered I was under the guidance of Mr. Mellor, the intelligent superintendent of the “ Ardwick Limestone ” 
pits, in the watercourse of one of which the shales were met with. 
f Comptes Rendus, tome lxxxi. no. 7. 
MDCCCLXXVII. 2 0 
