202 



D. H. Scott. 



Neuropterideae. 



In the .same year in which the .seed of Lyginodendron was first 

 identified, Mr. Kids ton was able to demonstrate the presence of 

 seeds in a species of Neiiropteris, a member of the group which 

 Stur, as long- ago as 1883. proposed to exclude from the Ferns. 



Fig'. 33. Ncnropteris heterophylla. Part of vegetative froiid, slightly enlarged. 



In the well-known species Neuropferis JwterophjlJa, the frond of 

 which is illustrated in Fig. 33, bodies of about the size and shape 

 of a small hazel-nut were found by Mr. Kidston, in material from the 

 Middle Coal-Measures of Dudle}^ attached to a rachis bearing the 

 characteristic pinnules (Fig. 34). Unfortunately there is no preserva- 

 tion of structure in this case, but the external characters aiford suf- 

 ficient evidence of the seed-nature of the organ. Beyond the fact that 

 the seed was one of those with radial symmetry, and that it had a 

 fibrous envelope, there are no details to record. The point of chief 

 interest is the fact that these large seeds were borne on a frond so 

 little modified as to show the ordinary vegetative form of pinnule, 

 another indication of the absence, in this group of plants, of differen- 

 tiated sporoph} lis. According to Mr. Ki d s t o n , the seeds fall 

 under the genus Bhahdocarpus of G ö p p e r t and Berger (not of 

 Brongniart). 



