Zamites pectinatus. _Lign. 47._--In the Stonesfield slate, collocated with remains of reptiles, fishes, insects, and mollusks, leaves and fruits of cycads are occasionally met with. A portion of a leaf nine inches long is here figured. The Lias of Dorsetshire has yielded many beautiful relics of this family[126] [126] In the carboniferous strata of Eastern Virginia, United States, which are referred by Professor Rogers to the Oolitic epoch, leaves of Cycadeous plants are abundant. See Trans. American Geol p. 298. [Illustration: Lign. 47. Part of a leaf of Zamites pectinatus; _nat._ _Oolite, Stonesfield._] But few vestiges of the foliage of Cycads have been observed in the Wealden formation of England; one elegant leaf, however, of an undescribed species, was obtained some years since, from a sandstone quarry in Surrey, and is figured in my Geology of the South-east of England, p. 238; it is named in honour of my distinguished friend, M. Ad. Brongniart, _Cycadites Brongniarti_. The Wealden of the north of Germany is very rich in fossil Cycadeæ; my friend. Dr. Dunker, has figured and described twelve species in his admirable work on the organic remains of that formation.[127] [127] Mon. Norddeutschen Weald, tab. i. to vii. _Fruits._--The cones or fruits which occur with the foliage of Zamiæ in the carbonaceous shales and marls of the Oolite of the Yorkshire coast, are very fine, and have been described under the various names of _Zamites Mantelli_, _Z. gigas_, and _Z. lanceolatus_. An interesting memoir on the structure of these fossils, by James Yates, Esq. (a gentleman distinguished for his knowledge of the recent Cycadaceæ), is published in the Proceedings of the Yorkshire Philosophical Society for 1849, p. 37; and another communication on the same subject by my friend Professor Williamson, of Manchester, in _York. Phil. Trans._ 1819, p. 45; to these papers I must refer for a detailed account of all that is at present known respecting their organization. [Illustration: Lign. 48. Fruit of Zamites Mantelli, (_Brongniart_); _nat._ _From near Scarborough._ The surface of the cone is concealed by the bracteæ.] Zamites Mantelli.[128] _Lign. 48._--The leaves associated with the fruit here figured, have lanceolate leaflets that insensibly contract at the base, and are inserted obliquely into the rachis; thus resembling the foliage of the recent _Encephalartos_. With these leaves, and the ovate cones (_Lign. 48_), are occasionally found a circle of leaves or elongated scales, locally termed "_collars_," which Professor Williamson has shown to be a zone formed by a scaly bud in which the germ of the plants was inclosed. In the progress of development, the fruit burst through the upper part of the investing sheath, and, as it grew to maturity, rose above the incurved elongated bracteæ, till the latter formed a zone or "collar" around the pedicle of the cone.[129] These fossils have been mistaken for flowers.[130]