BOTANICAL AND GEOLOGICAL. 717
��Cycadites. — M. Ad. Brongniart has referred these two fossil species to a new genus, by the name of Mantellia nidi- formis and Mantellia cylindrica. In my paper just quoted, I applied to them the provisional name of Cycadoidea megalo- phylla and Cycadoidea microvhylla ; but Mr. Brown is of opinion that until sufficient reasons are assigned for sepa- rating them from the genus Cycas or Zamia, the provisional name of Cycadites is more appropriate, as expressing the present state of our knowledge upon this subject. Buck- land's Bridgewater Treatise, vol. i, p. 496, note (1836).
In the vascular bundles within the fossil petioles, Mr. Brown has recognised the presence of spiral, or scalariform vessels (Vasa scalar if or mia), such as are found in the petioles of recent Cycadece ; he has also detected similar vessels in the laminated circle within the trunk of the fossil buds next to be described. The existence of vessels with discs peculiar to recent Cycadece and Conferee, such as have been described in speaking of fossil Conferee, has not yet been ascertained. Ibid., p. 499, note.
��Podocarya.
This fossil was found by the late Mr. Page, of Bishport, near Bristol, in the lower regions of the Inferior Oolite formation on the east of Charmouth, Dorset, and is now in the Oxford Museum. The size of this fruit is that of a large orange ; its surface is occupied by a stellated cover- ing or Epicarpium composed of hexagonal tubercles, forming the summit of cells, which occupy the entire circumference of the fruit.
Within each cell is contained a single seed, resembling a small grain of rice, more or less compressed, and usually hexagonal. Where the Epicarpium is removed, the points of the seeds are seen, thickly studded over the surface of the fruit. The bases of the cells are separated from the receptacle, by a congeries of footstalks formed of a dense mass of fibres, resembling the fibres beneath the base of
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