. The testimony of the rocks; . links between such leathern seed-bearing flowers as we finddeveloped in Cycas revoluta^ and such seed-bearing conesas we find exemplified in Zamia pungens. Tlie bud-likecone, however, does not seem to have been that of a Cyca-daceous plant, as it occupied evidently not a terminal posi-tion on the plant that bore it, like the cones of Zamia orthe flowers of Cycas, but a lateral one, like the lateralflowers of some of the Cactus tribe. Another class ofvegetable forms, of occasional occurrence in the Helmsdalebeds, seems intermediate between the Cycadacese and thef
. The testimony of the rocks; . links between such leathern seed-bearing flowers as we finddeveloped in Cycas revoluta^ and such seed-bearing conesas we find exemplified in Zamia pungens. Tlie bud-likecone, however, does not seem to have been that of a Cyca-daceous plant, as it occupied evidently not a terminal posi-tion on the plant that bore it, like the cones of Zamia orthe flowers of Cycas, but a lateral one, like the lateralflowers of some of the Cactus tribe. Another class ofvegetable forms, of occasional occurrence in the Helmsdalebeds, seems intermediate between the Cycadacese and theferns: at least, so near is the approach to the ordinaryfern outline, while retaining the stifl ligneous character of2amia, that it is scarce less diflicult to determine to which FOSSIL FLORAS OF SCOTLxVND. 485 Fig. of the two orders of plants such organisms belonged, thanto decide whether some of the slim graceful sprigs offoliage that occur in the rocks beside them belonged tothe conifers or the club mossesAnd I am informed by SirCharles Lyell, that (as some ofthe existing conifers bear a foli-age scarce distmguishable fromthat of Lycopodiaceas), so a re-cently discovered Zamia is fur-nished with fronds that scarcediffer from those of a fern. EvenZamia pectinata may, as Stern-berg remarks, have been a and Hutton place itmerely provisionally among theCycadaceoe, in deference to the judgment of AdolpheBrogniart, and point out its resemblance to Polypodiwmpectinatmn; and a small Helmsdale frond which I haveplaced beside it bears the impress of a character scarce lossequivocal. The flora of the Oolite was peculiarly a floraof intermediate forms. We recognize another characteristic of our Oolitic florain its simj^le-leaved fronds, in some of the species not alittle resembling those of t
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