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be classed among the ferns. This opinion, based in 

 the first place on negative evidence and but little 

 regarded by other authors, has in recent years 

 been proved correct. In 1904 a paper was read 

 before the Royal Society by Professor Oliver and 

 Dr Scott(43) in which evidence was brought forward 

 pointing to the conclusion that one of these 

 generalised plants bore true seeds. Subsequently 

 Dr Kidston published an account of some specimens 

 of another of these Palaeozoic plants in which was 

 actually shown an organic connexion between un- 

 doubted seeds and pieces of a fern-like frond (44). 

 Without entering into further details, these and 

 similar discoveries may be summarised as follows : — 

 Many of the supposed Fern -fronds of Palaeozoic 

 age, particularly those characteristic of the Coal- 

 measures, are the leaves of plants which in their 

 anatomical characters combined features now shared 

 by true Ferns and by the Cycads. The reproductive 

 organs of these Palaeozoic genera differed widely 

 from those of existing ferns ; the male organs, while 

 not unlike the spore-capsules and spores of certain 

 ferns, recall the male organs of living Conifers and 

 Cycads, and the female organs were represented by 

 seeds of a highly complex form. These seed-bearing 

 plants have been called Pteridosperms, a name 

 which expresses the combination of fern-like features 

 with one of the distinguishing attributes of the 



