1919I BASSLER—SPORANGIOPHORIC LEPIDOPHYTE 79 



pedicel and the blade. The surface may be nearly plane or it may 

 be thrown into several low longitudinal folds. It is sometimes 

 nearly smooth (ensifer, sicatus), but it is usually granulose to the 

 unaided eye and minutely rugulose-bullate under the lens. In 

 some forms the units of this sculpture are isodiametric, while in 

 other forms some of them at least are distinctly elongate trans- 

 versely, and sometimes the surface is very clearly transversely ^ 

 rugose even to the unaided eye {ripariiis, subnlatus). Usually 

 there is a line, a narrow bar or a low narrow longitudinal ridge, 

 which we shall call the "brace," dividing the face of the sporan- 

 giophore into 2 regions, which will be referred to hereafter as the 

 "inner" or "axillary field" and the "outer field." The outermost 

 portion of the latter, particularly when it is dift'erentiated, will be 

 called the "crest." In species with a great development of crest 

 {cuUriJormis, siihulatus) this structure extended well upward between 

 the sporangia of the superjacent sporophyUs. In a cone in which 

 the sporophylls are arranged spirally, a given sporophyll does not 

 regularly occur exactly beneath the interval between the two next 

 above it, and by reason of this fact the crest of the first mentioned 

 sporophyll is usually slightly deflected in its course into this interval, 

 and this deflection can often still be seen upon the crests of detached 

 examples. From a point on the toe near the middle of the narrow 

 proximal end of the sporangiophore the brace extends forward 

 sometimes straight toward the point of inflection, while at other 

 times it is parallel or nearly so with the pedicel throughout much 

 or all of its length. In the first case the axillary field has the 

 shape of a narrow isosceles triangle, with the base along the axis 

 of the cone; while in the second case its shape is roughly oblong- 

 rectangular, with the distal extremity more or less acute w^here the 

 brace toward this extremity is deflected toward the pedicel, which 

 may or may not be flexed upward shghtly to meet it. The outer 

 field is sometimes oblong-rectangular, but is usually somewhat 

 arcuate, particularly distad. The outer margin of the crest is 

 convex. The granulations upon the face of the sporangiophore 

 may or may not extend across the surface of the brace. These 

 granulations sometimes extend to the outer margin of the crest 

 {uovaculatus), while at other times they are limited strictly to 



