42 f 
of Bennettites gibsonianus \ Carr. 
ture of the stems in question made its appearance before the 
year 1868, when Carruthers’ excellent account of them was 
published \ and that nothing has since been added respecting 
them with the exception of Camel’s description of his Raumeria 
cocchiana 2 , though a rich store of material has been lying 
waiting for examination in various museums. Massalongo and 
Scarabelli. indeed, began the study of the specimens found in 
Upper Italy, and a number of drawings had been completed 
when the work was interrupted by the death of Massalongo ; 
it has been resumed by Capellini and myself, and the Marchese 
Scarabelli, of Imola, has in the kindest manner handed over to 
us the material and also the figures which have been already 
executed. 
But the neglect of this very interesting subject, even after 
attention had been drawn to it by Carruthers, becomes in- 
telligible when we learn to know the peculiar difficulties with 
which its study is surrounded. The specimens are rare, often 
unique, the ornament and pride of the different museums ; 
they are scattered over the whole of Europe, and have recently 
been heard of from America also, and unfortunately it is not 
always easy to obtain leave for the close examination which 
necessarily presupposes the making sections through them. 
Another specially embarrassing circumstance is the size of the 
specimens, which in some cases is astonishing, and makes it 
difficult to transport them, and extremely laborious and 
costly to cut them. It is only in a few workshops that it is 
possible to deal with such huge and at the same time hard and 
intractable masses of stone. The size is a very great and special 
hindrance in the way of obtaining thin slices ; and this was 
still more the case when Carruthers undertook his investiga- 
tions than it is at the present day ; but notwithstanding this 
difficulty he has explained the structure of the stems and leaf- 
1 Carruthers, W., ‘ On fossil Cycadean stems from the secondary rocks of Britain/ 
Trans. Linn. Soc. vol. 26 (1870), p. 675. See also the summary in F. Dixon, ‘ The 
Geology of Sussex/ New Edition, revised by Rupert Jones, p. 277. Brighton, 
1878. ' ' 
2 Caruel, T., * Osservazioni sul genere di Cicadacee fossili Raumeriae, descr. 
di una specie nova,’ Bolletino del Reale Com. Geol. d’ltalia, no. 7, 8 (1870), p. 181. 
