Notes. 
717 
points of detail, however, the reproductive bodies in question differ 
from the seeds of any known Gymnosperms; they afford no proof 
of the origin of the latter Class from the Lycopods. The newly 
discovered fructification nevertheless shows that certain Palaeozoic 
Lycopods, with strobili at first indistinguishable from Lepidosirobus , 
crossed the boundary line which we are accustomed to draw between 
Sporophyta and Spermophyta. 
As these fossils appear worthy of generic rank, I propose to found 
the genus Lepidocarpon for their reception ; it may be briefly character¬ 
ized as follows:— 
Lepidocarpon, gen. nov. —Strobilus, with the characters of Lepido - 
strobus , but microsporangia and megasporangia each surrounded by an 
integument, growing up from the upper surface of the sporophyll. 
Megasporangium completely enclosed in the integument, except for 
a slit-like micropyle along the top. A single functional megaspore 
developed in each megasporangium. Sporophyll, together with the 
integumented megasporangium, detached entire from the strobilus, the 
whole forming a closed, seed-like, reproductive body. 
It is proposed to name the Coal-measure form Lepidocarpon Lomaxi, 
and that from Burntisland L. Wildianum. Both were included by 
Williamson under his Cardiocarpon anomalum , which, however, is 
quite different from the seed so named by Carruthers. 
A full illustrated account of these fossils is in preparation, and will 
shortly be submitted to the Royal Society. 
THE AFFINITIES OF THE MESOZOIC FOSSIL, BENNET- 
TITES GIBS ONI ANUS, CARR. —Carruthers 1 2 , in 1870, described 
and figured the general features of the vegetative axis of certain 
specimens of Bennettites . This was shown (as in B. Saxbyanus ) 2 to 
be eminently Cycadean in character, and possessed a single vascular 
cylinder. But this fossil stem clearly exhibits a more primitive type 
of structure than that of the stem of modern Cycads, the two chief 
indications of this being (1) the course of the leaf-traces from the 
leaves to the central cylinder which, as in the most primitive parts of 
the axis of modern Cycads such as the primary node and the cone, is 
1 Carruthers, W., On Fossil Cycadean stems from the secondary rocks of 
Britain, Trans. Linn. Soc., Vol. xxvi, 1870. 
2 loc. cit., Plate 57, Fig. 3. 
