ZOOLOGY AND BOTANY, MICROSCOPY, ETC. 647 



parent plant and surrounded by radiating capillar lobes has been found. 

 5. This seed has the characters of a Lagmostoma seed, is 6 by 2 mm., 

 radiospermic, elliptic, and apparently ridged. 6. The Sphmopteris 

 spinosa condition shows that the cupular lobes are modified foliar seg- 

 ments, as is apparently the o villiferous body. 7. The male (Grossotheca) 

 and female {Galymmatotheca) conditions are foliar in nature, and present 

 many features in common. 



American Lepidostrobus.* — J. M. Coulter and W. J. G. Land 

 describe and figure a Lepidostrobus from Coal Measures in Iowa, the first 

 example yet found in America. The specimen is not a complete cone, 

 but a fragment from near the upper end. It had evidently soaked in 

 water before becoming fossilized ; rootlets had penetrated between the 

 sporophylls, and had become attacked by a fungus. The sporangia are 

 empty, but loose spores abound. The authors give a detailed account of 

 the structure of the specimen. 



Some Mesozoic Ferns and their Leaf-scars.j — -F. Pelourde pub- 

 lishes some remarks upon the structure of certain mesozoic ferns. From 

 a comparison of living and extinct forms he arrives at conclusions which 

 he summarizes as follows. In the families of the Osmundaceaa and 

 Dipteridinere, which were both very important during the secondary 

 epoch, the roots and petioles show in their anatomy a certain number of 

 characters which are concordant and more or less aberrant. The struc- 

 ture of the conducting tissue of the fronds is particularly interesting in 

 Dipteris conjugata. As shown in the body of the paper, this tissue ex- 

 hibits in a transverse section at the base of the petioles and in a section 

 made a little way above, two very different aspects. In fossil types of a 

 similar kind the vessels of the leaf-scars could consequently exhibit 

 variations of form according to the level at which the fronds may have 

 been detached from the stem. And a proper appreciation of this varia- 

 tion might perhaps serve to prevent erroneous confusions and illusory 

 distinctions. 



Spores of Spencerites.J — B. Kubart is investigating the fossil flora 

 of the Ostrau-Karwin Coal Measures, and gives a description of the 

 spores of Spencerites membranaceus, a new species of a Lepidophyte 

 genus. He obtained 200 spores from the Lower Carboniferous. In 

 England the genus was found in the Upper Carboniferous. 



Archgeopteris.§ — T. Johnson discusses the question " Is Archseopteris 



a Pteridosperm ? " He sums up the characteristics of the plant as 

 follows: 1. The " fern-like " bipinnate type of frond occurs commonly 

 in Pteridosperms and in ferns. 2. The same may be said of dichotomy 

 of fronds and pinnae. 3. And also of aphlebioid pinnules. 4. The 

 stipules are like those of Angiopteris, but become detached with the 

 frond ; in the Marattiaceae on the other hand the stipules remain 



* Bot. Gaz., li. (1911) pp. 449-53 (2 pis. and figs.). 

 t Ann. Sci. Nat. (Bot.) ser. 9, xiv. (1911) pp. 80-95 (figs.). 



% Denkschr. Math. Nat. Kl. Kaiserl. Akad. Wien, lxxxv. (1909) pp. 83-99 (1 pi. 

 and figs.). 



§ Sci Proc. Roy. Dublin Soc, xiii. (1911) pp. 114-36 (2 pis.). 



