CORDAITEAE. 1 1 1 



siders these leaves of Noggerathiopsis to be single detached leaves of 

 Cycadeae, but I am unable to find in his account of them any good ground 

 for this view. He compares them with Macropterygium Bronnii, Rhipto- 

 zamites, Schmalh., and some remains described as Podozamitae ; but all 

 these forms, as has been already stated, are of very doubtful character. 

 Details respecting Noggerathiopsis will be found in his extensive publica- 

 tions, in which he has also collected the literature of the plant-bearing 

 deposits of India, Australia, and South Africa. 



We may notice also in this place the genus Yuccites 1 , which contains 

 a number of fossil remains from Triassic and Jurassic deposits. Schimper 

 himself says of it : ' It is needless to say that these fossils may come from 

 types which are very different from one another, and which may have no 

 real analogy with the living type with which we compare them.' Schimper 

 says that the rush-like leaves of these Yuccitae have an appendage which 

 embraces the stem, and this may be the only character which would 

 certainly separate them from Cordaitae ; but it appears to me to be pre- 

 mature to place them at once for this reason among Proangiosperms, as 

 is done by Saporta and Marion 2 . 



If we find ourselves on the whole in a position to pick out the 

 Palaeozoic Cordaitae from out of this chaos of remains marked by 

 parallel nerves and by similarity of habit, and to determine them at least 

 in the most general features of their organisation, we owe it, as I take every 

 opportunity of saying, solely to the exact knowledge of the flowers of a 

 few species which we have gained through the labours of Renault. _ I will 

 add at once that I am far from thinking that the common connection of 

 all these forms of Cordaitae is thus certainly established. Still the following 

 remarks will suggest some grounds for the view that this type represents a 

 large and much differentiated group of plants, which must be coordinated 

 with Coniferae or Cycadeae, though we can at present discern its real 

 nature only from the characteristic marks of single selected species. We 

 have therefore as yet no means of judging of the degree of differen- 

 tiation of the characters in the group. If there were no Conifers at present 

 in existence, and we were compelled to picture their organisation to ourselves 

 from the flowers, suppose of Ginkgo only and Callitris, with some help from 

 leafy branches, our condition with regard to them would in my opinion be 

 nearly that in which we find ourselves at present in dealing with Cordaiteae. 



In the siliceous fragments of Grand' Croix we find now and again 

 small buds composed of leaves lying close one upon another, and repre- 

 senting male and female inflorescences (Figs. 8, 9). That these are flowers 

 of Cordaitae has been directly proved by the character of the leaves in 



1 Schimper et Mougeot (1), vol. ii, p. 426. 2 Saporta et Marion (2), p. 334. 



