OF THE FOSSIL PLANTS OF THE COAL-MEASURES. 
349 
of cells, with perfectly free outer extremities. In the two latter, that boundary wall 
consists of at least a multi-cellular layer, whilst such examples as 75 a, and 76, 
inchoate that the entire structure has been embedded in and formed part of a paren- 
chymatous structure. Such has certainly not been the case with the organism now 
under consideration. I have as yet discovered in the specimens of the latter, no trace 
of a peduncle, or point of attachment to any other structure. Fig. 7 6a, is enlarged 
324 diameters. I propose to distinguish this object as Sporocarpon compaction. 
Fig. 78 represents a second form of the same type of conceptacle which I found in 
a slide sent to me by Mr. Earnshaw. It differs from the specimen last described only 
in the greater n um ber and narrower transverse diameter of its peripheral cells, a, a feature 
which results in producing a more definitely regular peripheral outline. The cells are 
also longer than in fig. 7 6a, causing the thickness of the bounding wall to be greater in 
proportion to the diameter of the enclosed cavity. The maximum diameter of the entire 
organism is about ’009, being enlarged in the plate 214 times. The specimen, fig. 76 a, 
has about the same dimensions. Fig. 78 a, represents a single cell of fig. 78 ; its 
peripheral extremity, a, is broader than its narrower opposite or inner one ; its exposed 
face exhibits two flattened or slightly concave surfaces, resultants of the pressure of 
two contiguous cells. Each cell of this specimen has a length of about '0023 to ‘0029 
and a maximum breadth of ‘0005 to '0006. I have formed no opinion as to the 
relations of these objects. Fig. 7 8 may be designated Sporocarpon tubulatum. 
Before leaving these curious reproductive structures, I would further call attention to 
a single transverse section of a remarkable little fruit, fig. 103, which I only discovered 
accidentally in a larger section of one of the Oldham nodules made for the sake of a 
very different object. Though I carefully examined contiguous portions of the nodule, 
I could find no further traces of the specimen, a fact indicating that it was either a 
very short fruit, or only a fragment of a more elongated one. Its mean diameter is 
about ‘05. It consists of a central angular axis surrounded by a circle of what appears 
to be three, or possibly four curious structures b, //, which are evidently symmetrical in 
their contour and arrangement ; the two marked b, b, appear to retain their original 
form ; it is not so clear whether those marked V retain their normal form, or whether 
they were originally united, forming a figure with three centripetal and three centri- 
fugal prolongations, like the uppermost one, b' . These three or four structures are enclosed 
within a more peripheral zone, c, whilst yet more externally we have numerous bracts, 
d, each one of which bears on its inner surface a rounded or ovoid sporangium, e. 
In the figure these sporangia do not appear so distinct from the bract to which they 
are attached as they do in the specimen, since in the latter, whilst the bracts are 
opaque, black, and carbonised, the sporangia are translucent and of a rich, dark amber 
colour, like the hue of the spores found in coal. " The most definite of these sporangium- 
bearing bracts are those seen at d', d' . The bract appears to have had a Y-shaped section, 
the sporangium being lodged in the inner, concave upper surface of the bract. Each 
* These are now tinted in the figure. 
