1 6 Stopes, a Nezv Fern from the Coal Measures. 



found in the lower coal measures, and any day they may 

 turn up with foliage attached. It must not be assumed, 

 however, that the plant has any connection with Tubicaulis 

 Sutcliffii beyond the similarity in type of its meristele. 

 As was pointed out long since by Williamson ('74, p. ^7^^, 

 similarity in structure of petioles alone is a very poor 

 indication of true affinity, and is sometimes exceedingly 

 misleading. 



8. Fructification. 



Unfortunately there is no fructification in organic 

 connection with the plant. There are, however, several 

 isolated sporangia scattered among the petioles and roots. 

 The mere association of sporangia in such a position 

 would carry but little conviction with it in the case of an 

 ordinary bullion, which is packed with fragments of many 

 things in extreme confusion ; but in the sixty sections 

 which this nodule has yielded, no plant structures are 

 preserved but the one under discussion, a single minute 

 fragment of cortex which looks as though it might belong 

 to another plant, and these sporangia. It is generally the 

 case that the " roof nodules " contain but one specimen 

 (see p. 18), and, as a consequence, the importance of the 

 association of the sporangia with Tubicaulis is considerable. 

 Though there must still remain some doubt about the 

 question, the probability is that they are indeed the 

 fructification of Tubicaulis Sutcliffii. 



Each sporangium is small, being from 0"2-oi5 mm. in 

 diameter, and most of them are circular in outline. As is 

 to be expected from their small size, each appears but 

 once in the series of sections, so that it is impossible to 

 determine whether the well-marked annulus is multiseriate 

 or not. As is shewn in Figs. 10, 11, and 12, the 

 annulus is well defined, and only on one side of the 



