2 1 4 Seward. — Notes on the Geological 
Araucarias. The earliest recorded example of one of these 
supposed pandanaceous fruits is figured in Lindley and Hutton’s 
Fossil Flora 1 , and named by them Strobilites Bucklandi . 
A still more perfect example has been figured by Carruthers 
under the name of Kaidacarpum ooliticum 2 , from the Great 
Oolite of Kingsthorpe, Northamptonshire; there is a good 
specimen of this form in the British Museum collection which 
shows very clearly the characteristic features 3 . Another 
example, of what I regard as an imperfectly preserved female 
cone of Araucarites , is represented in Carruthers’ well-known 
memoir on Mesozoic Cycads as probably the male flower of 
Bticklandia 4 * * . A comparison of the figured specimen with 
certain cones from the Wealden rocks of Sussex, affords good 
grounds for regarding it as araucarian. The female cones of 
recent species of Araucaria possess well-marked characters, 
which enable us to recognize with reasonable probability 
fossil cones of the same type. In Araucaria imbricata the 
large cones have a short and thick axis, of which the surface 
is marked with regularly disposed pits or scars of the 
carpophylls. Each carpophyll is hollow and contains a com- 
paratively large seed, suggesting an angiospermous ovary. In 
A. brasiliensis 5 the stout axis is still more conspicuous, and 
in A. Cookii we have a smaller form conforming to the same 
type of structure. A section of a large cone of A. Bidwilli in 
the botanical department of the British Museum shows very 
clearly the nature of the carpophylls and the manner of 
occurrence of the seeds. If we compare the recent examples 
with such fossils as Kaidacarpum ooliticum , K. minus , Arau- 
carites Huddle stoni^, and others, we cannot fail to realize the 
very striking resemblance. I have elsewhere 7 drawn attention 
to the similarity of Kaidacarpum minus to some Wealden 
1 Vol. ii, PI. 129. 2 Loc. cit., PI. IX, Figs, i and 2. 
8 No. 52840 in the Museum Register. 
4 Trans. Linn. Soc. Vol. xxvi, PI. LIV, Fig. 6. 
5 See Martins’ figure in Flora Brasiliensis, PI. CX. 
r ’ Carruthers, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. Vol. xxxiii, p. 402. 
7 Wealden Flora, Pt. II, p. 190. 
