SELLARDS: PERMIAN PLANTS. II 



placed in one row on the midrib. Professor Wm. B. Rogers, 

 however, in his description of the plant, saj'S that they often occur 

 in two rows, one on each side of the midrib." It cannot be 

 affirmed that the scars on our specimens are the same as those on 

 Fontaine and White's specimens, but it would seem from their 

 relations that they are at least of the same nature, and probably 

 have no connection with fructification. 



Dr. David White has had the very great kindness to look over 

 the manuscript and illustrations of this genus, except figure la, 

 plate I, which has been added. Dr. White gives it as his opinion 

 that the rachial pits are fungi, and suggests a comparison with the 

 genus Rosellinites Pot. 



The comparison to insect stings was sugested to me originally 

 by the close resemblance of the scars to the stings on the common 

 Amorpha fructicosa (false indigo), said to be made by some of the 

 orthopteroid insects, a supposition which the more recently dis- 

 covered presence, among the plants, of two well preserved orthop- 

 terous insects may be taken to strengthen. The scars on this 

 shrub are certainly similar in arrangement and shape to those on 

 the fern rachises, although somewhat larger. The resemblance 

 may of course be entirely superficial. 



The suggested comparison with fungi is good, although I am 

 inclined to think the comparison closer with the genus Hysterites 

 than with Rosellinites. Quite recently I have found on a fragment 

 of Cordaites from University Hill, Lawrence shales, Lawrence, a 

 fungus related by its form, position, and the host on which it is 

 borne, to some species of Hysterites, as H. cordaites, and at the same 

 time so similar to the objects in hand as to suggest a close relation. 

 A close examination of the rachial pits reveals the presence on two 

 of them of elongate depressions at the center suggesting the cleft 

 in the living genus Hysteritwi — to which Hysterites is compared — or 

 the related Hysteriographium. This character is represented in the 

 detailed figure la, plate L If this figure had been made at the 

 time Dr. White saw the plate, I am inclined to think he would 

 have suggested Hysterites as well as Rosellinites, or possibly instead 

 of that genus. The type species oi Rosellinites, R. beyschlagii Foi., 

 as described and figured by the author. Flora des Roth., p. 27, 

 plate I, figure 8, is irregular in shape, varying from circular to 

 elliptical or egg-shaped, running together in irregularly formed 

 masses; the scars on the fern rachises are symmetrically elliptical, 

 and do not show the various irregular enlargements seen on 

 Rosellinites beyschlagii. 



