8 KANSAS UNIVERSITY QUARTERLY. 



Other species of Taeniopteris. 



Newberry figures the apex of a frond ^ with the following expla- 

 nation of the figure: ^^Taeniopteris •s>^.{l') in fruit; summit of frond, 

 Los Broncos, Sonora. " The formation is considered Triassic. 

 The specimen is not mentioned in the text. The figure is indis- 

 tinct, but the dots seem to be small, close, and placed much as in 

 our specimens, and are very probably the same. 



Dots of the character of most of those mentioned above, whether 

 glandular or fungal, or the bases of scales, if sought for will prob- 

 ably be found on many other species and various genera. Re- 

 cently I have noticed very similar dots between the veins of an 

 Aieihopieris from Lansing, Kansas, probably A. serlii (Brong. 

 Goep. 



If the dots between the veins of all these various genera are the 

 same as those on Taeniopteris the possibility of their being fructifi- 

 cation is practically excluded. It is scarcely possible for genera 

 differing so widely in form and geological position to have fructifi- 

 cation so very similar. Two cliaracters, however, are to be noted 

 on Taeniopteris not present on any of the others: the dots are in the 

 form of hard resistant bodies, which can be removed and sectioned, 

 which seems not to be the case in any of the other genera; sec- 

 ondly, the slit in the -bodies remains unexplained on any other 

 theory than that these are sporangia and the slit the line of cleav- 

 age for the discharge of spores; to which might be added a seeming 

 difference in the size and arrangement of the bodies on the differ- 

 ent species. It might be argued against such an hypothesis that 

 no genus of ferns is known in which the sporangia are placed be- 

 tween, and having no direct connection with the veins. In many 

 genera they are placed between the forks, or at the ends of the 

 veins, but always, so far as I have been able to learn, in direct 

 connection with this source of nourishment. Such an arrangement, 

 however, might not be impossible on a primitive fern. The soli- 

 tary and distantly separated sporangia(^?) are not peculiar to this 

 genus. Several fossil genera are known in which the sporangia 

 are often or regularly solitary; in the living genus Angiopteris the 

 sporangia are independent of each other. 



With the incomplete evidence at hand, especially in the absence 

 of structual characters, no positive conclusion is possible, and the 

 question is best left open for the present. The appearance is cer- 

 tainly very suggestive of sporangia, and in this journal, January, 



1 Exploring expedition from Santa Fe to the Junction of the Grand and Green rivers, 

 1850, Macomb. Geological report by Newberry, pi. 8, fig. 5. 



