﻿white] FOSSIL PLANTS OF GROUP CYCADOFILICES 3 ,S 7 



Microsporiferous organs of two forms are intimately associated with 

 the fronds, one of them belonging to the ( alymmatotheca type. The 

 latter, however, is not found in union with the frond. The discovery 

 of seeds in connection with the Aneimites group of supposed ferns 

 necessitates the systematic transfer of this group to the Ptcrido- 

 spermeze. This reference is based solely on the evidence of the 

 fructification, the anatomical characters of the fronds, whose fern 

 nature had not before been questioned, being still unknown, though 

 the form of the rachis suggests a single petiolar strand like that of 

 Heterangium. Aneimites is the third Cycadofilic genus in which the 

 seeds are definitely correlated through union with the sterile por- 

 tions of the frond. 



Types Probably Cycadofilic 



It has been seen that the reference to the Cycadofilices of the 

 genera individually discussed above is based on (a) the anatomical 

 characters of the stems and petioles; and (b) on the discovery of 

 seeds still attached to or definitely identified with the fronds, this 

 category being represented by but three types, Medullosa (Neurop- 

 teris), Lyginopteris, and Anemites (Adiantitcs). Besides these 

 there is a third category, more indefinite and unsatisfactory, but 

 worthy of mention as provisionally referable to the same phylum. 

 It is based (c) on their evidently close relationship to one of the 

 above mentioned Cycadofilic genera ; on the circumstantial evidence 

 of association; or on the negative evidence of the absence of any 

 recognized filicoid type of fructification. 



The third Pteridospermic category includes common genera, not 

 petrified so as to show their internal anatomy, found as impressions 

 or carbonized remains at many hundreds of localities in Europe or 

 America, but whose fructification is not yet known. Some of these 

 genera, which are still placed among the ferns, appear to be habitu- 

 ally associated with certain generic types of seeds in a way to 

 strongly suggest a former union as well as a common source. Thus 

 Grand 'Eury, who more than any other paleobotanist has contributed 

 to our knowledge of the habits of the Paleozoic plants in situ, in 

 two recent papers 1 concludes not only from the absence of rhizomes 

 and connected fructifications, but from the large number of genera 

 of Coal Measures seeds that are unaccounted for and the habitual 

 association of some of the latter with fronds of the Neuropterideae, 

 that Pachytesta is referable to Alcthopfcris; that certain small striate 



l Comptes Rendus, vol. 138, March 7, 1904, p. 607; vol. 139, July 4. "'"i- 

 P- 23. 



