346 Dr. D. H, Scott [May 15, 



Williamson, though not described by him, has lately been re- 

 investigated, in the first instance by my friend Professor F. W. Oliver. 

 The great peculiarity about it is that the seed itself was borne in a 

 little calyx-like cup, fitting loosely round it, just as a hazel-nut is 

 borne in its husk. The cup, or cupule, which is deeply lobed, bears 

 very peculiar glandular bodies, usually with a short thick stalk and 

 a round head, which is empty, as if the secretory tissue had broken 

 down. These glands on the cupule of the seed have been found to 

 agree exactly in dimensions, form and structure with the glands 

 borne on the leaves and stems of the particular form of Lyginodendron 

 Oldhamium with which the seeds are associated. 



Suppose that in some tropical forest where the trees were too 

 lofty for their leaves and fruits to be reached, seeds and leaves and 

 twigs were found scattered together on the ground, and that they all 

 proved to bear exactly similar glandular outgrowths, of a kind 

 unknown elsewhere. Suppose further that the structure of the 

 envelope of the seed turned out to agree in other respects with that 

 of the vegetative fragments, should we hesitate to conclude that the 

 seeds belonged to the same plants as the leaves and twigs, though 

 we had never seen them actually in connection ? Such is the 

 argument with regard to the relation of the seed Lagenostoma to the 

 plant Lyginodendron. Short of finding the vegetative and repro- 

 ductive organs in continuity the proof is as strong as it can be, and 

 I think we need not hesitate to conclude that the one belonged to 

 the other.* 



But, if this be so, the question as to the nature of the Pal£eozoic 

 Cycadofilices is settled, at least as regards one member of the group. 

 Lyginodendron was already a seed-bearing plant. The seeds are 

 highly organised and, broadly speaking, of the Cycadean type. The 

 integument and central body of the seed are closely joined to near 

 the tip, and along the line of junction run the strands which conveyed 

 the water-supply. The upper part of the integument has a curious 

 chambered structure — the central body terminates in a large pollen- 

 chamber of peculiar bell- shaped form, in which the pollen-grains are 

 sometimes found. The neck of the pollen-chamber tits into the 

 opening of the integument and reaches the surface. The middle of 

 the seed is occupied by the large megaspore or embryo-sac, in which 

 remains of prothallial tissue can sometimes be detected. The seed, 

 in fact, is as highly differentiated as any seed of its period, lacking 

 only an embryo, as do all its contemporaries. 



But if Lyginodendron, with all its Fern-like characters, was thus 

 a true seed-plant, we cannot doubt that other quasi-Ferus of that 

 period, exhibiting a similar combination of characters, had also 

 entered the ranks of the Spermophyta, and we may confidently 



* Oliver and Scott, on Lagenostoma Lomaxi, the Seed of Lyginodendron^ 

 Proc. Eoy. Soc., vol. Ixxi. (1903) p. 477. 



