PRESENT POSITION OF PALEOZOIC BOTANY—SCOTT. 401 
As regards habit, there can be no doubt that the Medullosex were 
plants of very large size. Petioles of Medullosa nearly 15 em. in 
diameter are known, and those of Sutcliffia approached the same 
dimensions. The repeatedly pinnate leaves, with the habit of a huge 
Osmunda (as in Neuropteris) or Angiopteris (as in Alethopteris), 
were borne on stems probably resembling those of Tree Ferns; in a 
Medullosa from Saxony the decorticated stem measures 48 by 46 cm. 
in diameter. The specimens of J/edullosa anglica show that the stem 
was completely clothed by the decurrent bases of the leaves. 
M. Grand’Eury’s extensive observations on the association be- 
tween fronds and seeds of definite species, not only in Alethopteris 
and Neuropteris, but in Odontopteris, Linopteris, Lonchopteris, etc., 
have convinced him that the Neuropteridez generally were seed- 
bearing plants of Cycadean affinities. There can be no question that 
all the existing evidence points in this direction, while throughout the 
whole of the family there is practically an entire absence of any 
countervailing evidence on the Fern side. 
We have as yet scarcely any knowledge of the nature of the male 
organs in this family. In 1887 Mr. Kidston described a form of 
fructification in Neuropteris heterophylla, the same species in which 
he afterwards discovered the seed. The specimen shows a forked 
rachis, bearing the normal vegetative pinnules below, while the 
branches terminate in four-lobed bodies, which may be interpreted 
either as groups of sporangia or as cupules. As there is no reason to 
suspect the presence of cupules in the Neuropteridee, the former 
view is perhaps the more probable, in which case the specimen would 
no doubt represent the microsporangiate fructification; in no in- 
stance, as yet, are the indications perfectly satisfactory. 
In the Neuropteridex, as in the Lyginodendrex, we are dealing 
with plants of which the anatomical structure is known, at least in 
certain representatives. We are therefore able to point to definite 
structural characters, quite apart from the habit, which indicate 
affinity with the Ferns, as we have already shown in the case of the 
Lyginodendrex. In the anatomy of the Neuropteridee with the 
Medullosa type of stem, the most Fern-like feature is the vascular 
system, which, in its primary “ polystelic ” arrangement is essentially 
Filicinean, and was compared by Weber and Sterzel with that of 
Psaronius. This character, it is true, becomes disguised as secondary 
growth proceeds, but the original ground plan of the structure is of 
unmistakable significance. The leaves, apart from the habit and 
venation, are on the whole of Cycadean structure and not, in them- 
selves, much more Fern-like than those of the recent Stangeria. In 
the new genus Sutcliffia the anatomy of the stem, peculiar as it is, 
can only be compared with that of a protostelic Fern, while the con- 
centric foliar bundles accentuate the Filicinean relationship. The. 
