The generic name _Microspermum_ has recently been proposed by Arber[1066] for some Westphalian seeds described by Carpentier[1067] from the North of France as _Carpolithes? samaroides_ and for similar fossils from the Middle Coal Measures of Nottingham. The supposed seeds are small, ovate or pyriform bodies, 5–12 mm. long and 2·5–6 mm. broad, with one extremity broadly rounded and the other acute: one side is keeled, the other grooved, and a large foramen occurs near the broader end and on the grooved surface. Arber emphasises the fact that the specimens are symmetrical in one plane only. As the author of the genus points out the morphological nature of the fossils is not thoroughly established, nor is the parent-plant known. In view of the ill-defined characters of the specimens so far discovered it is hardly desirable to institute a new generic name implying their seed-nature; moreover _Microspermum_ has previously been employed for a genus of Compositae. An examination of specimens leads me to doubt their seed-nature and it would seem more likely that they are foliar organs, possibly bracts which originally bore seeds or sporangia. * * * * * An examination of some of the specimens of supposed Permian seeds for which Geinitz[1068] proposed the generic name _Guilelmites_ convinced me that they are inorganic structures, probably nodules in shale smoothed and rounded by slickensiding. CHAPTER XXXVI. CYCADOPHYTA.