HOLLICK: STATUS OF OPHIOGLOSSUM ALLENI L. 209 
Recently Professor Cockerell* called attention to the fact that, 
in connection with certain specimens of the species, there 
could be detected a peculiar protuberance or body, apparently 
attached to the midrib, near the middle, in regard to one of 
which he remarked (loc. cit. pp. 211-212): 
It looks like a small berry, with the contents extruded. . . Probablythe 
riddle would never have been solved but for the discovery of a younger 
This hows that we have to do neither with a 
leaf, frond nor ped but with a  claddete: Attached to the midrib is an indis- 
tinct mass, presumably a thin bract, upon which can be seen a dark object 
which seems to agree very closely with the flower of Ruscus . 
The genus Ruscus [has] . . . lanceolate to ovate sharply pointed prea 
t first sight the venation seems quite different from that of the 
thasil bah if we imagine the Ruscus cladode broadened and abbreviated until the 
principal veins are nearly or quite transverse instead of longitudinal, the cor- 
respondence is exact.t} 
Based upon this course of reasoning a new genus was evolved, 
and Lesquereux’ multi-generic species became Brachyruscus 
Alleni (Lesquereux) Cockerell (loc. cit. p. 212)—the sixth 
binomial under which it was described and discus-ed. Inciden- 
tally it may also be noted that this last change of name definitely 
transferred the species from the Pteridophyta to the Spermato- 
phyta and changed it from a frond, a leaf, or a fruit to a cladode. 
The question whether or not this last change of name should 
be accepted as the final word in regard to its probable taxonomic 
and morphologic status did not, however, appear to be answered 
conclusively or satisfactorily, based as it was on a frank appeal 
to the imagination to supply the necessary evidence. Also 
the naively worded footnote on page 212 appeared to be more 
or less of the nature of a challenge. In any event the statements 
and conclusions set forth in the paper certainly called for a 
critical examination of all of the available facts and their faithful 
presentation, without any attempt to connect them with any 
preconceived theory and without any appeal to the imagination 
to supply any mente in the specimens that might be poorly 
preserved or lac 
During a ane visit to the United States National Museum 
I was enabled to examine some fifty specimens of the species in 
* A new genus of fossil Liliaceae, Bull. Torrey Club 49: 211-213. f. 2. 
t The italicising is mine. 
