Notes . 
257 
vegetative region are those given by M. Hovelacque in his admirable 
memoir on Lepidodendron selaginoides 1 , in which species the ligule is 
shown on the upper surface of the leaf-cushion, enclosed in a deep 
ligular pit penetrating far into the tissue of the leaf-base. This 
ligular chamber opens to the exterior only by a small pore situated 
just above the upper angle of the scar from which the leaf-blade 
separated ; the small pore probably corresponds with the mark first 
described by Stur 2 from the casts, and considered by him to be the 
ligular pit. The ligule itself is described by Hovelacque 3 as having 
the form of a triangular pyramid with blunt angles and point ; its 
insertion at the bottom of the chamber is very oblique, while it is so 
short as to be generally invisible from the exterior. 
Hitherto, however, the ligule in the strobilus ( Lepidostrobus ) has not 
been described, the only reference which I have been able to find in 
the literature being a not very clear statement by Solms-Laubach, who 
writes, referring to some impressions found in the Gegenort mine at 
Dutweiler : ‘ I observe on several of the leaves, close to where the line 
of fracture passes through their bases, a small obtusely triangular scar 
with a trace-point in its centre, which from its median position is 
probably the object discovered by Stur on the barren cushion, and 
called by him the ligular pit. Its occurrence in Lepidostrobi was till 
now unknown V 
Recently, in an examination of the Williamson Lepidostrobi under- 
taken under the direction of Dr. Scott, F.R.S., I have found the ligule 
sufficiently well preserved to enable one to make out not only its 
position but also some details of its structure. It can readily be seen 
in several of the Williamson slides (C. N. 568, 574, 1776 A, 1776 B, 
1776 C), and I have also seen it in a slide (S. 615) kindly lent by 
Dr. Scott. 
In the accompanying figure (from C. N. 1776 C), the expanded, 
peltate, distal extremity of the horizontal portion of the sporophyll is 
shown at A , with part of the vascular bundle at B, and many of the 
short tracheides (barred cells) so characteristic of this region of 
1 Recherches sur le Lepidodendron selaginoides , Stern : Memoires de la Societe 
Linneenne de Normandie, Caen, 1892. 
2 Die Culmflora der Ostrauer und Waldenburger Schichten : Abh. d. k. k. 
Geol. Reichsanstalt zu Wien, Vol. viii, Heft ii (1877), Taf. xix, Fig. i. 1 . 
3 Loc. cit., p. 155. 
* Fossil Botany, English edition, pp. 234, 235. 
