History of Monocotyledons . 2 1 7 
This and other specimens from the same locality were named 
byKonig DracaenaBenstedtii^ after Mr. Bensted who discovered 
the stems in the ‘ Iguanodon 5 quarry, but no diagnosis of the 
species seems to have been published. Konig’s name was 
adopted by Morris in his Catalogue of British fossils 1 ; also 
by Mantell, who mentions a specimen two and a half feet in 
length and eight inches in diameter, the surface being 
marked with ‘annular ridges, indicating amplexicaul leaves 2 .’ 
In a later work he adds — ‘ until the internal structure of 
these fossils has been examined, the correctness of this 
identification is, however, uncertain 3 .’ 
Carruthers in 1868 4 expressed the opinion that Bensted ’s 
specimens show a closer resemblance to Pandanus than to 
the stem of Dracaena. Gardner 5 alludes to what are probably 
the same stems as possibly cycadean. I have previously 6 
pointed out the close agreement in external form between 
these Maidstone fossils of Lower Greensand Age and the 
stems of certain recent Cycads. The example represented in 
PI. XIV, Fig. 3, is the same which Mackie described in 1862 ; 
the preservation is fairly good ; the stem has a girth of 34 cm. 
and is 9.5 cm. in length along the median line which re- 
presents the boundary between two approximately equal 
branches. The surface is characterized by numerous in- 
terrupted transversely running grooves, which curve upwards 
towards the upper end of the stem where the axis appears to 
be bifurcating. Numerous small, elliptical, and transversely 
elongated elevations are scattered over the surface without 
any regularity of arrangement. Here and there occur patches 
of a bluish white mineral deposit which do not, however, 
exhibit any internal structure. In some of the other speci- 
mens in the British Museum collection there seem to be 
traces of a woody structure lining a central cavity occupying 
1 p. 8. 
2 Mantell, Petrifactions and their Teachings, 1851, p. 49. 
3 Ibid., Medals of Creation, Vol. i, 1854, p. 194. 
4 Geol. Mag. 1868, p. 154 (footnote). 
5 Ibid. 1886, p. 201. 
6 Wealden Flora, Pt. II, p. 170. 
