238 BOTANICAL GAZETTE [MARCH 
also Medullosae would be removed from Cycadofilices and included among 
Pteridospermae. 
And now, in a note-issued January 27, Professor Olivers" announces the 
discovery of three specimens of fragments of fronds of Meuropteris hetero- 
phylla, each bearing a large seed, As this Neuropteris is without doubt the 
foliage of a Medullosa, the two families Lyginodendrae and Medullosae, as 
prophesied, at present represent the known forms of Pteridospermae. While 
the new group is distinctly intermediate between Filicales and Gymnospermae, 
the undoubted seeds would include it among gymnosperms as at present con- 
stituted, although the form of the name would indicate the intention of pro- 
posing it as a third group of seed-plants. 
Associated with the above results is a recent contribution by Miss Mar- 
garet Benson, who supports the theory of the soral origin of the ovule, and 
proposes an entirely new theory of the phylogeny of the inner integument. 
She finds that certain digitate clusters found among paleozoic plant remains 
are synangia that have dehisced septicidally and then opened along the ven- 
tral sutures for the liberation of spores. Telangium is a form-genus proposed 
to include such forms as were studied, and proofs are advanced to show that 
it is the microsporangial sorus of Lyginodendron. If this be true, the infor- 
mation concerning Lyginodendron has developed rapidly, and its intermediate 
character would be still further emphasized by the possession of a distinct 
ovule (Lagenostoma) and a microsporangial synangium (Telangium). In our 
own observation this is exactly paralleled by the case of Cycadoidea in which 
ovules are associated with synangia.33 The most far-reaching suggestions of 
the paper, however, have to do with the origin of the ovule and the nature of 
the inner integument. The conclusion that the microsporangium of Lygino- 
dendron is a synangium suggested that the megasporangium (Lagenostoma) 
of the same form might be derived from a synangium whose sterile sporangia 
are still represented by the anomalous cavities of the integument surrounding 
the functional sporangium, as described above. This interpretation of the 
“canopy”’ of Lagenostoma is supported by a number of arguments, including 
such analogies as may be obtained from the megasporangial sorus of Azolla, 
and the sterilized sporangia in the tufted sori of Botryopteris. This means 
that the ovule is a synangium in which the peripheral sporangia are sterilized 
and specialized as an inner integument!—J. M. C. 
3*OLIVER, F. W., A new pteridosperm. New Phytologist 4: 32. 1904. - 
3% BENSON, MARGARET, 7e/angium Scotti, a new species of Telangium (Calymma- 
totheca) showing structure. Ann. Botany 18: 161-177. pl. 77. 1904. 
33See COULTER and CHAMBERLAIN, Merphalesy of Spermatophytes. Part I. 
Gymnosperms. pp. 145-148. 
