Fructification of tioo Coal-measure Ferns. 25 



preserved. Two fragments are shown in figs. 7 and 8. 

 Barren pinnae have been observed attached to the same 

 rachis as the fruiting pinnae, and in one case one of these 

 fruiting pinnaj has a few barren pinnules interspersed with 

 the fruiting ones. 



Crossotheca fintbriata in the barren condition seems undis- 

 tinguishable from Calymmatotlieca schatzlar-ensis, Stur *. The 

 figures given by Stur are somewhat indistinct, especially that 

 showing the fruit of his fern (fig. 2), from which reallj 

 nothing can be learnt of the form and structure of the fructi- 

 fication. In his description he refers to the imperfect preser- 

 vation of the fruit of his specimen, but among other remarks 

 mentions that the fruit contains four or five sporangia (valves 

 (Klappen) of an indusiura according to Stur), which are 

 directed downwards and only free at their upper part, that 

 the upward directed portion of the fructification to w4rich the 

 supporting stalk is attached is convex, and that the fruit is 

 2-3 millira. long and 1*2-1'4 millim. broad. Notwith- 

 standing the somewhat imperfect condition in which the fruit 

 is said to be, a very distinct woodcut of the same is given on 

 p. 238, fig. 40. Accepting, then, this figure and description 

 as correct, Crossotheca fimbriata is essentially distinct from 

 Calymmatotlieca schatzlarensis^ Stur. In Crossotheca fimbriata 

 the synangia are broader than long, having a breadth of from 

 3-4 millim. and a length of about 2 millim. in the compressed 

 condition. Again, in Crossotheca fimbriata the sporangia are 

 numerous, narrow, oblong, or linear, and are united to each 

 other throughout almost the w^iole of their length. The 

 fructification of the two species is therefore altogether dis- 

 similar. It is possible that the specimens examined by Dr. 

 Stur were not so fully developed as those figured by me, for 

 on some of the small slabs from Yorkshire, on which the 

 fruit appears to be younger and scarcely so well preserved as 

 in the specimens I have figured, the entire synangium is oval 

 and but little broader than long, and in this condition it has 

 a much closer approach in general appearance to fig. 40 given 

 by Stur on p. 238 of his ' Carbon-i'lora ' than to those given 

 on my plate. 



The afiinities of Crossotheca fimbriata are clearly Maratti- 

 aceous. In the union of the sporangia to each other, their 

 attachment to an oval (or circular) disk, and in their forming 

 a cup -like synangium, they have a considerable similarity to 

 the synangia of Kaulfiussia^ Blume ; but in Kauifussia the 

 synangia are scattered on the back of the frond, not on por- 

 tions of the frond specially metamorphosed for fructification. 

 * Carljou-Floia, i. p. 265, jd. xxxviii. liga. 1, 2 (1885). 



