VOLUME LXVIII NUMBER 2 



THE 



Botanical Gazette 



AUGUST igig 



A SPORANGIOPHORIC LEPIDOPHVTE FROM THE 



CARBONIFEROUS 



Harvey B a s s l e r 



(with plates ix-xi) 



The plant impressions which form the subject of this paper have 

 in part been known for several decades, but the discovery by the 

 \\Titer of the key to their important and very interesting nature 

 came as a pleasant incident in monographic studies of the very 

 large and varied flora of the Maryland Carboniferous, and it is 

 believed that the testimony which they contribute to a discussion 

 of the problem of the phylogeny of the vascular cryptogams will 

 justify the pubhcation of this paper in advance of the large sys- 

 tematic work upon which the writer is engaged. 



These plant impressions were long regarded as the sporophylls 

 of Lepidostrobus (Lepidophylliim), and latterly (16) certain of them 

 were thought to be the microsporophylls of some yet unknown type 

 of Lepidostrobus or Lepidocarpon whose sporangia by their compli- 

 cated form, not then understood, differed from those of the known 

 species of Lepidophyllum, but the \vriter will show that they dififer 

 so fundamentally from all known cryptogamic sporophylls that it 

 will be necessary to establish for their reception a new genus. The 

 most distinctive feature of this group is a large lamellar sporan- 

 giophore developed in the radial plane of the strobilus from the 

 superior (ventral) face of the sporophyll pedicel, bearing two large 

 elongate sporangia, one upon each side, pannier-like; and it is 

 this character which has suggested the name Cantheliophorus, 



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