Palaeontologie. 
307 
Seott, D. H„ Some aspects of the present Position ot Palae- 
ozoic. Botany. (Rep. Brit. Ass. York. (1906.) p. 745—746. 1907.) 
A short abstract of the paper by the same author in the Pro¬ 
gressiv Rei Botanicae Vol. I. N°. p. 139. 1906 an abstract of which 
appeared in the Bot. Centralbl. Vol. 105. p. 266. 1907. 
Arber (Cambridge). 
Sellards, E. H., Notes on the Spore-bearing Organ Codono- 
theca and its relationship with the Cycadofilices. (New 
Phytologist. Vol. VI. N°. 6—7. p. 175—178, with a textfig. 1907.) 
Codonotheca is a symmetrical cup- or bell-shaped body (with a 
long, slender petiole) made up of a circle of six equidistant, lamina- 
like, spore-bearing divisions. These unite laterally at the base, and 
surround a central cavity. Each division is traversed by two strong 
vascular bundles. It measures 3—5 cm. in length, and l'/ 3 cm. across 
at the top. Probably several of these cups were borne attached to 
petioles on a central stem. The spores lie over the inner face of the 
division or segments of the cup, from base to tip, and are confined 
to a more or less well-marked depression occupying from one-half 
to two-thirds of the width of the segments. The spores are brownish 
in colour, large, and elongate-elliptical. There is no indication of 
the location of sporangia, which were doubtless more or less com- 
pletely immersed in the tissue, the dividing walls disappearing at 
maturity. 
The affinities of the fructification are discussed, with the con- 
clusion that Codonotheca is the male, spore-bearing organ of the 
Neuropteris-type of Cycadofilices, possibly of Neuropteris decipiens. 
Arber (Chambridge). 
Stopes, M. C., On the “Coal Balls” found in Coal Seams. (Rep. 
Brit. Ass. York (1906.) p. 747-748. 1907.) 
Evidence is brought forward to show that the coal balls occur 
on more than one horizon, in both the Lower and Middle Coal 
Measures. Thus the factors needed for the formation of these struc- 
tures have combined more than once during the deposition of the 
Coal Measures as a whole. The coal balls are concretions largely 
composed of Ca CO : . As a rule the plants in two neighbouring 
balls are disconnected tragments, but in some cases the same plant 
continues in two nodules, suggesting that the balls were formed in 
the place in which they are now found. The constant association 
with the roof nodules, containing marine Shells, suggests that the 
infiltration of sea-water and carbonate was necessary for the forma¬ 
tion of the true “coal balls.” The occurrence of these petrifactions 
is extremely local. Arber (Cambridge). 
Weiss, F* E., A Stigmaria of unusual type. (Report Brit. Assoc. 
York. (1906.) p. 752. 1907.) 
The Stigmaria, from the Halifax Hard Bed of the Lower Coal 
Measures, here briefly noticed, has a considerable amount of cen- 
tripetally developed primary wood, and thus resembles 5. Brardi 
Ren. The vascular tissue supplying the rootlets has practically the 
same arrangement as in that species, and the cortex has a conside¬ 
rable development of short reticulated tracheids. 
Arber (Cambridge). 
