﻿white] ti-ie seeds of aneimites 329 



usually much elongated. This is illustrated by the specimen shown 

 in plate xlviii, figure II. 



The seeds, Wardia fertilis, are small, oval-rhomboidal, winged 

 fruits, obtusely rounded at the apex, and apparently consisting of an 

 inner nutlet, probably thinly lenticular in cross-section, surrounded 

 by a fibrous and probably somewhat fleshy outer envelope, which is 

 laterally dilated below the angles of the nutlet to form a wing, and 

 which is slightly denser, with larger bundles, near the base. When 

 mature they are regularly and uniformly deciduous by cross scission 

 of the tissue at the base of the nutlet. In the process of their de- 

 velopment the pedicels appear to elongate somewhat, while the wing 

 is inconspicuous in the earlier stages. They are usually accom- 

 panied, at the dilated summit of the pedicel, by smaller imperfect 

 or abortiye fruits, or scales. The evidence of an apical pore or 

 micropylar neck is obscure, while that of a pollenic chamber rests on 

 the occurrence of a slight collapse within the apex of the nutlet, 

 observed in a few examples only. The slight costation noticed in 

 some of the seeds suggests a gymnospermous type with both pollenic 

 chamber and micropyle. 



The fruits of Aneimites can hardly be regarded as other than true 

 seeds, and the group of hitherto supposed ferns to which they belong 

 is therefore to be referred to the Pteridosperma; of Oliver and Scott, 

 the " Cycadofilices " of Potonie. 



The identity and nature of the microspore-bearing organs are not 

 vet determined ; but it is highly probable that the production of 

 pollen either has to do with branched and coiled appendages origi- 

 nating at the apices of some of the dilated pedicels, or that, as seems 

 to the writer much more unlikely, it is connected with the intimately 

 associated Calymmatotheca type of sporangia. 1 



To the seeds of Aneimites described above is given the generic 

 name Wardia in honor of Professor Lester F. Ward whose compre- 

 hensive elaboration and philosophical discussions of the American 

 Mesozoic floras are an invaluable contribution to our knowledge of 

 the development and distribution of plant life in geological time. 

 The type of the genus is Wardia fertilis. 



As compared with other Paleozoic seeds Wardia is perhaps most 

 suggestive of some of the smallest species of Cardiocarpon, though 

 differing from that genus by its fibro-nervose outer envelope, and 

 the diminution of the wing in passing above the middle. It is prob- 



1 The latter hypothesis is in accord with the views of Professor Zeiller, who 

 suggests that the pollen of Neuroptcris may have been produced by some 

 Calymmatotheca. Comptes Rendus, vol. 138, 1904, p. 663. 



