The President's Address. By Dukinfield H. Scott. 137 



2. Pecopteride^e. 



At the present moment much of the interest of Palaeozoic 

 botany centres in the Pecopteridese. The discoveries of the last 

 three years have transferred so many of the so-called Ferns to the 

 ranks of seed-bearing plants, that doubts have even been expressed 

 whether, at least in the older Carboniferous strata, there were any 

 true Ferns at all. Apart from the Botryopterideae, a group which 

 some would separate from the Ferns proper, the last refuge of the 

 true Ferns has hitherto been found in the genus Pecopteris. This 

 stronghold, it is true, was rudely shaken when, in April of last 

 year, M. Grand'Eury discovered fronds of Pecopteris Pluckeneti 

 laden with seeds ! The species, however, is an aberrant one, and 

 cannot decide the fate of the genus as a whole. A large number 

 of the species of the form-genus Pecopteris are known to have 

 borne fructifications of the type commonly recognised as Marattia- 

 ceous. The sporangia are somewhat massive, without a definite 

 annulus, and, in the more characteristic cases, are united together, 

 like the carpels of a multilocular ovary, to form compound fructi- 

 fications known as synangia. While our knowledge of the 

 external characters of such fructifications is chiefly due to Stur, 

 Zeiller and Grand'Eury, it is to Eenault, more than anyone else, 

 that we owe an acquaintance with their internal organisation, 

 which he described in Scolecopteris polymorpha, Ptychocarpus unities, 

 Pecopteris geriensis, P. oreopteridia, P. exigua, Sturiella intermedia, 

 and others (Eenault, 1883 and 1896). The case last mentioned is 

 particularly interesting, as here the sporangia, though grouped in 

 definite synangia, possess a kind of annulus, thus showing a 

 remarkable combination of characters. Eenault's observations 

 undoubtedly tended strongly to confirm the idea of the Marattia- 

 ceous affinities of the fossils in question. Whether this view, once, 

 as it seemed, so unassailable, can hold its ground, or whether we 

 shall have to admit that all these fructifications, like Crossotheca 

 Honinghausi, were but the pollen-bearing organs of Pteridosperms, 

 cannot yet be decided. In either event, the ultimate decision will 

 rest, in no small degree, on the accurate data afforded by Eenault's 

 researches. 



3. Neuropteride^e. 



The building-up of our knowledge of this family, now re- 

 cognised as one of the main divisions of the Pteridosperms, has 

 been the work of many investigators, among whom Eenault 

 claims an important place. It was he who first demonstrated the 

 anatomical structure of the leaves of Neuropteris and Aletliopteris, 

 and was able to show that their petioles were identical with 

 the petrified specimens long previously named Myeloxylon by 



