Page:Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society of London, vol. 27.djvu/600

 1. Carpolites umbonatus, Sternb. Flora d. Vorwelt : Tent. p. xli, tab. ix. fig. 2.

Cardiocarpum umbonatum, Bronn, Leth. Geogn. vol. i. p. 37, tab. viii. fig. 3.

Guilielites umbonatus, Gein. Leitpflanzen d. perm. Form. p. 19.

Quercites paloeococcus, Unger, fide specimen in the Bruckmann collection, British Museum.

2. Guilielmites permianus, Gein. Die Leitpflanzen der permischen Formation, p. 19, tab. ii. fig. 6-9.

Carpolithes permianus, Schimper, Traite Pal. Veg. vol. ii. p. 226.

Geinitz established the genus Guilielmites for the reception of these supposed fruits, because of their resemblance to the fruit of Guilielma speciosa, Martins, a palm from Brazil. Schimper places Guilielmites permianus among the fruits which he considers to be related to the seeds of Cycadeoe ; while G. umbonatus is not noticed by him ; it may be either rejected as a spurious fossil, unintentionally overlooked, or referred to a place in the vegetable kingdom which his valuable work has not yet overtaken.

There occur not unfrequently in the Stonesfield slate roundish flattened bodies (Pl. XIX. figs. 4-7), most frequently exhibiting only the amorphous cast of the organism in which they were originally moulded, and lying loose in the cavity of the matrix, but occasionally inclosed in a dark-coloured polished covering. These have been considered to be fruits ; and they so closely resemble the aspect of the ripe seed of a chestnut that it is not to be wondered that they are always placed amongst vegetable fossils in museums. Some time ago the Rev. P. B. Brodie, F.G.S., was so good as to send me his large collection of Stonesfield-slate remains for investigation. I have already described from them an interesting Araucarian cone. There were in his collection several specimens of these round bodies, one with the dark covering entire, and another with it partially removed. Besides these I have examined a large series in the Oxford Museum, and several in the British Museum. The continuous nature of the covering, without any indications of a base or apex, which would have been indicated had it been a fruit, or of the hilum, had it been a seed, made me doubt its vegetable nature ; and the uniform thickness and continuity of the covering suggested that these bodies might be eggs. Fortunately the surface yet exhibited sufficient markings to assist in determining whether this was the case or not. After the examination of a considerable series of eggs in the zoological collections of the Museum, I discovered that the sculpturing on the surface agreed very closely with that on the eggs of reptiles, and especially those of turtles. This determination was confirmed when I subsequently ascertained that the bony plates of Chelonians were not uncommon in the Stonesfield slate. Besides turtles, however, there occur also in this deposit the remains of Pterodactyles ; and it is not improbable that they may be, as suggested by Mr. Seeley, the