BY R. ETHERIDGE, JUN. 235 



He says on this point : — " The position of the fructification is 

 indicated in several of the specimens by small round spots, very 

 regularly arranged in one or two rows parallel to the margin — 'the 

 outermost row at but a short distance from the margin, the inner 

 about half-way between the outer and the mid-rib. When there 

 is only one row it is always the inner that is wanting. In these 

 spots I can find no organic structure at all, but only little lumps 

 of sandstone, as if not only the sori themselves, but the very 

 substance of the frond had decayed, or been displaced at these 

 points. I think, however, from the regularity of their form and 

 arrangement, there can be little doubt that they really indicate 

 the places of the sori." Acting on this belief, Bunbury suggested 

 an alliance of Glossopteris to the Polypodidse or Aspidese, but at 

 the same time suggested that the venation of the fronds indicated 

 a tendency towards the Acrostichese. 



The next step in advance was made by Mr. William Carruthers, 

 who detected on some Queensland examples of Glossopteris, 

 collected by the late Richard Daintree, indications of fruiting,* 

 in the form of linear sori, running along the secondary veins, and 

 nearer to the margin than to the mid-rib. Unfortunately, no one 

 has had the good fortune, notwithstanding the thousands of 

 examples of Glossopteris that have been collected, to notice a 

 similar structure, but the result of this discovery was at once 

 grasped by Feistmantel, who pointed out that it would necessitate, 

 if confirmed, the placing of the Australian and Indian plants in 

 separate genera. f Feistmantel considered the Queensland Glos- 

 sopteris to resemble the living Anthrophyum, an opinion in which 

 he is supported by Zeiller,| but Tenison Woods states§ that 

 Anthrophyum is devoid of a mid-rib, and therefore the com- 

 parison would not strictly stand. It appears to us, however, that 

 there is a rudimentary mid-rib in Anthrophyum (or Antropihyum) 



* Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. 1872, xxviii. p. 354. 



t Pal. Indica (Gondwana Flora), 1881, iii. Pt. 3, p. 97. 



:|: Ann. des Mines, 1882, Livr. Sept.-Oct. 



'§Proc. Linn. Soc. N. S. Wales, 1883, viii. 121. 



