NO. 1873. CHARAC'I'ERS OF GTOANTOPTERJFI— WHITE. 501 



figure 7, show the convex surface of the bracts with impressions of the 

 sacs. The latter are shown in profile in figure 4, plate 48. The 

 detailed structure of the sac is not clear, but each seems to be some- 

 what obhquely and separately seated, the vent being an apical or 

 slightly obliquely placed pore. 



In man}^ of the detached bracts a radiate nervation is indistinctly 

 shown; but in the bract shown in natural size in plate 48, figure 5, 

 nerves radiate fasciculately from the as^anmetrically placed central 

 strand. In another very small and immature specimen, shown in 

 plate 47, figure 3, and enlarged in figure 4, the nervilles appear to 

 anastomose in a greatly elongated mesh comparable to that observed 

 in the fronds already described. The bilateral arrangement of the 

 bracts and their distinctly fern-like nervation leave little doubt as to 

 their filicate or cycadofilic nature. The relation of the strobiles to 

 Gigantoptens is made still more probable by the agreement in the 

 peculiar texture and aspect of the residue. I therefore have little 

 hesitation in referring these interesting strobili to the genus Gigan- 

 topferis. Whether the sacs, whose position and environment are so 

 much like the pollen sacs of Noeggerathia, are really pollen sacs, 

 remains in some doubt; but if the associated seeds, described above, 

 also belong to this type, as I believe them to, the bracts bear the 

 pollen sacs (anthers) of the plant, which must be placed with the 

 cycadofilices (pteridosperms). In the latter case the strobiles compose 

 bilateral spikes of the male flowers of Gigantopteris. 



Mention has already been made of the lobation of the narrowing 

 lamina in some of the leaf fragments collected. Several of tlie latter 

 have lobes that seem to approach the specimen shown in figure 5, 

 plate 48, in characters; but wliile they are interesting as illustrating 

 reduction of the lamina in the broad portions of some of the fronds, 

 they do not appear to justify the conclusion that the polleniferous 

 (sporiferous ?) bracts of the plant were thus produced, though such 

 was perhaps the case. The aspect of the strobili and the characters 

 of the relatively slender rachis suggest a position, possibly axillary, 

 on the stem of the plant. 



ASSOCIATED SPECIES AND AGE OF THE GIGANTOPTERIS-BEARING 



BEDS. 



Asiatic distribution. — The fossils collected from the anthracite 

 mine at Lui-pa-Kou, the type locality of Gigantopteris, in the Province 

 of Hu-nan, as described by Schenk ^ are: 



1. Annularia maxivia Schenk. 



2. Calamites, sp. 



3. Neuropteris flexuosa Sternberg. 



4 . Neuropteris angusiifolia Brongn iart . 



5. Cyatheites unitus Brongniart. 



G. Cyatheites miltoni Goeppert. 



7. Megalopteris nicotiansefolia Schenk. 



8. Lepidophyllum, sp. 



9. Cordaites principalis Geinitz. 



China, vol. 4, 1883, pp. 230-239. 



