432 



SCIENCE PROGRESS. 



hood of Cracow. In this species, Bowmanites Romeri, Solms, 

 the sphorangiophores springing from the upper surface of 

 each whorl of bracts, bear at the apex two sporangia instead 

 of one as in previously known forms. Between each pair 

 of sporophyll verticils there are at least three whorls of 

 sporangia, the sporangia are almost sessile, and attached to 

 short sporangiophes in the same manner as in the fructifica- 

 tions already described. Each sporangiophore bifurcates 

 towards the distal end, and the sporangia are attached to the 

 diverging forks in much the samemannerastheovulesof^w?^ 

 and Encephalartos are suspended from their carpophylls. 

 As regards the nature of the spores and the annulus-like 

 cells of the sporangial stalks, Bowmanites Romeri agrees 

 closely with the other forms. As happens so frequently in 

 pala^obotanical research, we are able to examine in detail 

 the characters of an isolated member of an individual plant, 

 without knowing anything of the other parts of the same 

 species. In the present instance we are ignorant of the 

 nature of the leaves which were borne by the stem to which 

 Bowmanites Romeri was attached. There can, however, 

 be little or no doubt that we have to do with a Spkeno- 

 pkyllum strobilus, differing in an important respect from the 

 ordinary type. The plants included in the genus Catamites 

 are known to have possessed cones of more than one type 

 of structure ; and it would appear that this was also the 

 case with Sphenophyllum. When our data are more com- 

 plete it may be possible to institute new generic terms for 

 plants which are now assigned to these somewhat compre- 

 hensive genera, but for the present it is better to err on 

 the side of too wide a meaning for generic terms, than to 

 attempt to found new genera on insufficient evidence. 



In addition to a full account of Bowmanites Romeri, 

 Solms discusses at some length another sphenophylloid 

 strobilus originally described by Weiss as Bowmanites 

 Germanicus \ and suggests that this species as well as that 

 described by Binney under the name of B. Camdrensis 2 



1 Weiss, PI. xxi., fig. 12. Solms-Laubach, PI. ix., fig. 7. 



2 Binney, PI. xii., figs. 1-3. 



