14 



COENOPTERIDACEAE 



[CH. 



Fig. 315- Transverse section of the shoot of 

 Tiibicaiilis solenites Cotta, after Stenzel, 

 showing stem with protostele, and the last 

 four leaf-traces traversing the cortex. The 

 leaves are numbered in their succession. 

 The drawing is simplified by the omission 

 of roots, etc. 



with the concavity outwards, as characteristic of the "Inversicatenales" of 

 P. Bertrand (Fig. 315). Since the leaves 

 and sporangia of these fossils are un- 

 known, their position in the Kotryo- 

 pterideae is an uncertain one. 



The leaves of Botryopteris appear to 

 have been branched, with alternate 

 pinnae. In the French species, B. for- 

 ensis, they ran into fine branches, bear- 

 ing broad lobed pinnules with prominent 

 dichotomous veins. Stomata were borne 

 on the one surface which was presumably 

 the adaxial, while the other, presumably 

 the abaxial, bore the " equisetiform " 

 hairs. These appeared upon the outer 

 surface of a young leaf still with circinate 

 vernation, thus confirming the presumed 

 orientation. The sporangia have been 

 found attached to branches of the fertile rachis showing the characteristic 

 features of B. forensis. In other species similar sporangia are associated 

 with the parts preserved, but not at- , ,, 



tached to them. They were of small 

 size and pear-shaped, with a wall 

 composed when ripe of a single 

 layer of cells. An annulus ran up 

 one side only of the sporangium, 

 composed of thick-walled cells, form- 

 ing a broad band. The spores were 

 evidently very numerous (Fig. 316). 

 The sporangia associated with the 

 British B. Jiirsuta and raniosa are 

 smaller. It seems probable that many 

 of the sporangia from British coal- 

 balls previously described as being 

 of an Osmundaceous type may really 

 have been sporangia of Botryopteris. 

 The comparison of these with the 

 sporangia of the Osmundaceae may 

 still hold good, though not perhaps 

 the definite reference to that family 

 {^Ann. of Bot. v, 1891, p. 109). 



A particular interest attaches to the sporangia found by Scott in Petticu 



Fig. 316. Botryopteris forensis. Group of spo- 

 rangia, 1)1, III, inserted on rachis ; /, pedicel 

 of sporangium; «, wall of sporangium; «, multi- 

 seriate annulus. The uppermost sporangium is 

 in nearly transverse section: /, stomium, or 

 place of dehiscence. ( x 35.) (From Renault, 

 after Scott.) 



