The Present Position of Palaeozoic Botany. 213 



We may sum up the position of the question as to the derivation 

 of the Pteridosperms in the statement that all the evidence points 

 to their having- sprung- from the same stock with the Ferns. The 

 antiquity of the Ferns, and especially of the comparatively simple 

 types represented b}^ the Botryopterideae and related forms, appears 

 sufficiently established to afford an historical basis for this conclusion. 



The relation of the Pteridospermeae to higher seed-bearing plants 

 will be best discussed in the next Section. 



VII. The Gymnospermeae. 



There is little of novelty to record in our knowledge of the 

 Palaeozoic Gymnosperms. as distinguished from the more primitive 

 class Pteridospermeae. With regard to the Cordaiteae, the most im- 

 portant group, the position remains very much as Renault left it. 

 The facts are in every text-book and familiar to all students of 

 Palaeobotany; I do not propose to recapitulate them here. Marvellous as 

 was the reconstruction of this family at the hands of Grand' Eur y 

 and Renault, our knowledge urgently needs widening, and new data 

 are to be eagerly sought. In the case of the Palaeozoic Cycads and 

 Conifers our records are scanty, and the time has not yet come for 

 a general treatment of this part of our subject. 



The questions on which 1 propose briefly to touch are two only: — 



1. The relation of the Pteridosperms to the Cycadophj'ta. 



2. Their relation to the Cordaiteae. 



1. The Relation of the Pteridospermeae to the Cycatlophyta. 



The general affinity between the Pteridosperms and the Cycads 

 (in the widest sense) is manifest, and has been recognized since the 

 first anatomical observations which led to the institution of the group 

 Cycadofilices. xA-part from the abundant anatomical evidence, we find 

 ample confirmation of the affinity in our more recently acquired know- 

 ledge of the reproductive organs. The seeds w^hich we attribute, with 

 certainty or high probability, to the Pteridosperms, Lagenosfoma, Phijso- 

 stoma, Trigonocarpon, Stephanospermum and others, are all of the Cjxa- 

 dean type of structure, as shown especially in the characters of the 

 pollen-chamber and vascular system, and do not admit of an equally close 

 comparison with those of any other group of plants except perhaps 

 the Cordaiteae and GinJcgo. The male organs, to judge by Mr. Kid- 

 ston's Crossotheca, appear to have been of the nature of synangia, and 



