iSo SCIEXCE PROGRESS. 



and acute apex. AcrosticJmni, Aspidium, and other recent 

 ferns are compared with the fossil genus, and in one 

 example of Glossopteris certain ill-defined spots are spoken 

 of as traces of rounded groups of sori. Since Brongniart's 

 diagnosis was published thousands of Glossopteris leaves 

 have been discovered in India, Australia and Africa, but 

 we are still in doubt as to the precise affinities of the genus. 

 Several writers have described markings on leaves which 

 they refer to as sori. but it is extremely doubtful whether 

 these supposed fructifications are of any botanical value. 

 In 1 86 1 Bunbury ^ described some leaves of Glossopteris 

 Broicniana from India on which were " small round spots 

 very regularly arranged in one or two rows parallel to the 

 margin ''. The specimens figured by Bunbury are in the 

 Museum of the Geological Society of London ; an examina- 

 tion of the fossils shows that the supposed sori have the 

 form of irregularly circular holes in the leaf lamina, bordered 

 by a narrow brown rim. and distributed with but little 

 regularity. The figures i and 4 of Bunbury 's paper (pi. 

 viii.) convey a very fair idea of the appearance which he 

 describes.- It may be that the patches are merely holes 

 in the leaf, and not the impressions of sori, but it is im- 

 possible to speak very decidedly as to their real nature. 

 In the absence of any trace of sporangial impressions, we 

 cannot accept the specimen as affording any trustworthy 

 evidence of the nature of the fructification of Glossopteris. 



In 1872 Carruthers described an Australian form of the 

 same species, in which he noticed ''some indications of 

 fruit in the form of linear sori runnino- alono- the veins and 

 occupying a position somewhat nearer to the margin of the 

 frond than to the midrib".^ Unfortunately no figure is 

 given of this supposed fertile leaf Some years later Feist- 

 mantel described another type of fructification in which 

 " the secondary veins quite close to the leaf margin seem to 

 pass into an intra-marginal longitudinal vein, leaving thus 

 a very narrow empty space along the margin, which perhaps 



^ Bunbury. - No. 10,356 in the Geological Society's Collection. 

 2 Carruthers (2), p. 6. 



