XXXl] WAKDIA 173 



genus Adiantides or Adiantites 1 are characterised by cuneate 

 pinnules with a thin lamina and forked, slightly divergent veins 

 (fig. 445, A, D). White discards the name Adiantides in favour 

 of Dawson's genus Aneimites on the ground that Goeppert 2 , who 

 instituted the former term, applied it in the first instance to leaves 

 of Ginkgo which he identified as simple Fern fronds. In spite 

 of this misapplication of the name it has been constantly used 

 and is well established. The discovery of seeds is, however, a 

 reason for the adoption of a new generic name, and as White 

 proposed Wardia for the seeds it may appropriately be extended 

 to the fronds in place of the provisional term Aneimites. The 

 seeds which occur at the apices of slender pedicels on pinnae 

 bearing relatively small pinnules with a reduced lamina (fig. 445, 

 B, C) are rhomboidal in shape, 4*5 mm. long and 2*5 mm. broad. 

 The bilaterally symmetrical seeds were probably enclosed, as 

 White suggests, in a fleshy integument which on pressure became 

 laterally extended as a wing-like border. In some of the seeds 

 there is an indication of a 'slight collapse within the apex of the 

 nutlet,' which may mean the presence of a pollen-chamber; but 

 while the preservation is too imperfect to afford any decisive 

 evidence as to anatomical features, there is no reason to doubt 

 the conclusion as to the seed-nature of the organs described by 

 White. Nothing is known of the stem, though the opinion may 

 be hazarded that Wardia is a member of the Medulloseae. 



Adiantites bellidulus Heer and Lagenospermum Arberi Nathorst. 



Reference is made to the genus Lagenospermum in the account 

 of Lagenostoma 3 . The species Lagenospermum Arberi has recently 

 been founded by Dr Nathorst 4 on some seeds obtained from 

 Lower Carboniferous rocks in Spitzbergen : a brief description is 

 intercalated here because it is probable that they were borne on 

 fronds of the Adiantites type similar to those on which White 

 found the seeds described by him as Wardia. The seeds of 

 L. Arberi, 14 18x5 mm., are spindle-shaped with an obtuse 

 apex and longitudinally ribbed with a stalk at least 7 mm. long. 

 Nathorst considers that a cupule was probably present: the 



1 Vol. ii. p. 376. 2 Goeppert (36 2 ) A. p. 216. 



3 See page 64. 4 Nathorst (14) p. 30, PI. xv. figs. 18, 6068. 



