sporophyll. The seeds obtained from the Iowa and Kan- 
sas coal balls are smooth and lustrous and are protected 
merely by the thickened cells of the sporangial wall. In 
other words the isolated ‘‘seed’’ is asporangium and its 
contents. There is no suture nor other mechanism for de- 
hiscence. Many thin sections have revealed the presence 
of a gametophytic body, in which no archegonia have 
been preserved. The different tissues produced within the 
sporangium will be discussed in the description of the 
species given later. 
A number of seeds were macerated with dilute hy- 
drochloric acid and the large seed megaspores were re- 
covered. These are ovoid or ellipsoid bodies nearly as 
large as the sporangium with the megaspore wall thicker 
at its distal end. They are undoubtedly the same type of 
spore as that termed Cystosporites by Schopf. However, 
the differences in size between his species (Cystosporites 
breretonsis Schopf) and the isolated spores in coal make 
it impossible to attribute both forms to a single species. 
The recognition of the megaspore of our seeds confirms 
their reference to Lepidocarpon. 
However, the external form and gross anatomy of 
these seeds apparently conform in all particulars to the 
isolated seed-like or sporangium-like bodies described by 
Lesquereux under the name Lepidocystis. A number of 
the species of Lepidocystis are nothing more than the 
sporangia of Lepidocarpon and their contained struc- 
tures, hitherto only recognized with certainty in examples 
showing the sporangium associated with its sporophyll. 
Thus the Lepidocarpon (‘‘Lepidocystis’’) from Lowa coal 
balls illustrates a more mature condition of the seed body 
than usually observed in the familiar Lepidocarpon. 
It is therefore consistent with the evidence to refer 
these fossils to Lepidocarpon without amplifying the ge- 
neric concept. A reference of this form to Lepidocystis 
[ 96 ] 
