Specimens described under this name are interesting rather on account of their extended geographical range and geological antiquity than on botanical grounds. The drawings reproduced in fig. 187 illustrate the characteristic appearance of this Lower Carboniferous and Upper Devonian type, as represented by a specimen recently described[391] from the Lower Karroo (Dwyka) series, which is probably of Carboniferous age, near Orange River Station, South Africa. The surface is divided into polygonal or rhomboidal areas (figs. A and B) 8–9 mm. long and 7–8 mm. broad, arranged in regular series and representing leaf-scars, comparable with those of _Sigillaria Brardi_ and other species, or possibly partially decorticated leaf-cushions. A short distance below the apex of each area there is a more or less circular prominence or depression (fig. 187, B) and on a few of the areas there are indications of a groove (fig. A, _g_) extending from the raised scar to the pointed base, as at _g_, _g_. [Illustration: FIG. 187. _Lepidodendron australe._ Fig. A, nat. size.] In examining the graphitic layer on the surface of the South African specimen shown in fig. 187, A, use was made of a method recently described by Professor Nathorst[392]. A few drops of collodion were placed on the surface, and after a short interval the film was removed and mounted on a slide. The addition of a stain facilitated the microscopic examination and the drawing of the collodion film. The cell-outlines (fig. 187, C) on the surface of the polygonal areas may be those of the epidermis, but they were more probably formed by a subepidermal tissue; the scar, which interrupts the continuity of the flat surface, may mark the position of a leaf-base, or, assuming a partial decortication to have occurred prior to fossilisation, it may represent a gap in the cortical tissue caused by the decay of delicate tissue which surrounded the vascular bundle of each leaf in its course through the cortex of the stem. If the impression were that of the actual surface of a _Lepidodendron_ or a _Sigillaria_, we should expect to find traces of the parichnos appearing on the leaf-scar as two small scars, one on each side of the leaf-bundle. In specimens from Vereeniging described in 1897[393] as _Sigillaria Brardi_, which bear a superficial resemblance to that shown in fig. A, the parichnos is clearly shown. On the other hand, an impression of a partially decorticated Lepidodendroid stem need not necessarily show the parichnos as a distinct feature: owing to its close association with the leaf-trace in the outer cortex, before its separation in the form of two diverging arms, it would not appear as a distinct gap apart from that representing the leaf-bundle. The absence of the parichnos may be regarded as a point in favour of the view that the impression is that of a partially decorticated stem. Similarly, the absence of any demarcation between a leaf-cushion and a true leaf-scar such as