44 



PAL^ONTOLOGICAL BOTANY. 



with the scars widely separated^ as in some Alsophilas, C. Bal- 

 fouri (Fig. 31) from the Somersetshire coal-field ; and the other 

 with larger stems and more closely aggregated scars, C. Morrisi 

 (Fig. 32), from the coal-measures at Newcastle. The latter 

 species shows the cavities at the base of the petiole described 

 by Mohl in many living fern-stems. The fossils named Psa- 

 ronius appear to have been fern-stems with a slender axis and 

 a large mass of adventitious roots, as in some Dicksonias and 

 in Osmunda regalis. These stems probably belong to some of 

 the fronds to which other names are given, but as they have 



Fig. 30. Fig. 31. Fig. 32. 



not been found attached, it is impossible to determine the 

 point. Miller has described a fern as occurring in the coal- 

 measures, which at first sight presents more the appearance 

 of a Cycadaceous frond than any other vegetable organism 

 of the carboniferous age except the Cycadites Caledonicus 

 (Salter), from Cockburnspath Cove. He thus describes it : — 

 "From a stipe about a line in thickness there proceed at. 



Figs. 30 to 32. Stem of Tree-ferus, called Caulopteris. Fig. 30. 

 Caulopteris macrodiscus. Fig. 31. Caidopteris BaJfouri (Carr.), Coal- 

 measures. Fig. 32. Caulopteris Morrisi (Carr.), Coal-measures. 



